NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Delhi civic polls, the state unit of the BJP on Friday threw open the first NaMo Seva Kendra – one-stop centre to help those living in slum clusters in getting documents such as identity proofs made – at a jhuggi camp in east Delhi’s Yamuna Chilla Khadar.
The BJP had invited Union Minister of State (MoS) Home Nisith Pramanik as the chief guest. While addressing the people, he said that with the opening of the centre, they will not have to run around to get documents readied to avail of the Centre welfare schemes.
The elections to the three municipal corporations – North, South and East – are due in April this year. The BJP has ruled corporations for 15 straight years and is eyeing the vote of the slum clusters, which have mainly been the stronghold of the AAP. In a bid to mobilise voters living in JJ clusters, Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta, who inaugurated the NaMo Kendra, had last September led the ‘Jhuggi Samman Yatra’ – a 45-day outreach campaign across assembly constituencies with high concentration of slum clusters. The party had highlighted the Centre’s pro-poor schemes such as the Ujjwala Yojana for cooking gas cylinders and the Sukanya Yojana for education of girls.
Gupta had announced the opening of 100 such NaMo Kendras during the Yatra, which he said was slightly delayed because of the third wave of the covid-19 pandemic. Neeraj Tiwari, state secretary, in-charge JJ clusters cell of BJP, said these centres will be opened in 124 slum cluters across 31 assembly constituencies. “So far we have trained 15 young adults in making documents and studying various schemes to lead the centres. We have been working on this project for eight months,” he said.
Nisith Pramanik criticising the AAP government said, “Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia used to talk a lot about free water, power and education but today where I am standing I see no school there. There is no electricity or clean water here. The NaMo Kendra would fulfill its responsibility, we promise you that,” he said.