NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government's biggest achievement is bridging the gap between peoples' aspirations and the government's priorities especially healthcare, uninterrupted power supply, free water supply and standard education system in Delhi. Delhiites had sent the AAP to power with a sweeping majority in February 2015 to fix the "big disconnect" between people and the government.
Listing achievements of the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government which started its third year on Wednesday, leaders of the party claimed: "People of Delhi dreamt big when they gave us 67 of the 70 seats. We have been able to deliver on that dream by fixing the 'disconnect' between the way of life in our State and the priorities of governance."
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said if the AAP got a historic mandate from the people of Delhi, it also got "historic resistance" from political quarters. The mandate, the work done, the harassment suffered by our MLAs; everything has been historic in the last three years. But despite that people across the country acknowledge that ours is a government which is not corrupt. Our critics can find procedural deficiencies in our work, but they cannot find financial lapses," Sisodia said.
After approval of doorstep 40 services, it would be rolled out in two to three months time. Apart from these 40-services, minimum 30-35 more services would be added to the scheme every consecutive 30-day from the day of rollout, till all services are covered. The AAP leader said the biggest worry of the common man is health of his close ones and education of his children. "But governments always had different priorities. They wanted to build bridges and flyovers. In the last two years, we have changed that," he added.
According to officials, the aim of the government was to bring quality education to such a level that whenever children of today grew up, they would need "minimum governance". The AAP government, in its first budget since coming to power, doubled the education budget and increased the health budget by half.
Urban Minister Satyender Jain said the government worked relentlessly to make Delhi open defecation free. Around 8,000 toilets have been built so far, of which 633 new toilets were inaugurated on Tuesday. "We managed to give 24x7 power supply to Delhi despite reducing power tariff at a time when they have been hiked across the nation. Today, Delhi has the lowest tariff among all states," Jain said.
Apart from building around 110 Mohalla clinics in the city, the government has also set up 26 polyclinics so far. Medicines, medical tests and consultation are available for free at all these clinics as well as in Delhi government hospitals. Delhi is fast-tracking its next ambitious project – health cards for all the 1.8 crore residents of Delhi.
Jain, a Kejriwal confidant, said the government had also saved hundreds of crores of rupees while building many flyovers to make people's commute shorter and more pleasant. Delhi Jal Board sources said the government was on its way to deliver its promise of providing piped water supply to all households. "We have already provided piped water to 309 additional unauthorised colonies, bringing its total to 1,103 out of 1,797 colonies. Work is going on in other such colonies as well," he said.