NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha MP and former Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel on Thursday said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was misleading the people on the issue of regularisation of unauthorised colonies. He said that the onus was on the Delhi government to demarcate the boundaries of unauthorised colonies, which it couldn’t finish in the last four-and-a-half years.
“Kejriwal is now seeking more time, till 2021. The CM has also said that he wouldn’t tolerate a minute’s delay in getting the colonies regularised. He is fooling the public in the same way former CM Sheila Dikshit did in the run-up to 2008 assembly polls. The Congress government provided false provisional certificates in 1,200 colonies. Even after 10 years, the properties in these colonies are yet to be sold,” the senior BJP leader said.
Goel made these remarks while leading a protest of Delhi BJP leaders at Jantar Mantar on Thursday. He was flanked by sitting MPs Parvesh Verma and Hans Raj Hans. Goel’s protest drew sharp riposte from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Addressing a press conference later in the day, the party’s Delhi unit chief and minister for development Gopal Rai said the BJP had not laid a single brick in any unauthorised colony during its tenure from 2014.
“Our government has already spent Rs 6,000 crores since coming to power in 2015. Instead of sitting on a dharna against the AAP government, the BJP should pull up its socks and deal with the two burning issues - sanitation and law and order - which are in the domain of the central government that it heads. Both cleanliness and safety are issues that impact people living in unauthorised colonies,” Rai said. The AAP leader further asked the BJP leaders to present evidence of a single development work undertaken by their party for the unauthorised colonies.