Delhi: 100 days action plan on health, roads and river
We were told, the new government hit the ground running even before it was formed! There were whispers of a ‘100-day action plan’ coming up to swiftly improve our lives; well, address some basic necessities at least.
A high-level meeting of bureaucrats was reportedly convened before the Cabinet was sworn-in, ‘setting clear targets for departments to achieve within the first three months’. From implementing the Ayushman Bharat health scheme to addressing pollution in the Yamuna, fixing the city’s drainage, improving sanitation, and revamping road infrastructure, the administration plans to move swiftly to fulfil its ‘poll promises’.
The Ayushman Bharat scheme’s rollout has been prioritised, with the goal of enrolling one lakh beneficiaries. There’s a renewed push to clean the Yamuna, deploying advanced machinery and revisiting stalled projects.
Drainage issues, a major cause of waterlogging during monsoons, are being ‘dealt with’.A plan to clean 77 key drains before the rains arrive, coupled with, efforts to enhance sanitation is in place. It remains to be seen how the new government ensures coordination between civic agencies, a persistent hurdle in addressing long-pending issues, and even called into question by the Supreme Court. Anyway, the PWD has initiated repairs on 54 major roads, aiming to make Delhi’s streets pothole-free!
‘Ayushman Bhava’
One of the BJP’s key poll promises was implementation of the Ayushman Bharat scheme in Delhi. Now we know the bureaucratic machinery swung into action while the BJP bigwigs were still choosing the chief minister. A high-level meeting of 24 top officials, chaired by the Chief Secretary, was convened for swift implementation of key promises in BJP’s ‘Viksit Delhi Sankalp Patra 2025’.
Here comes Ayushman Bharat. In the meeting, the Chief Secretary directed departments to draft a cabinet note on the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat scheme. “Departments must outline their 15-day, monthly, and 100-day targets. If any project/scheme needs to be placed before the Council of Ministers, the Department should start preparing the Draft Cabinet Note,” read the directive.
In the first meeting of the Cabinet, the government approved implementation of Ayushman Bharat, directing the health department to enroll the first one lakh beneficiaries within 100 days. The beneficiaries will be selected based on data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011.
According to the vision document circulated with the press, eligible families in Delhi will receive annual health insurance coverage under the Ayushman Bharat. Additionally, senior citizens above 70 will be issued a Vay Vandana Card. The Delhi government will bear the cost of the top-up of Rs 5 lakh that will be provided under the Union government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme as an insurance cover to poor and vulnerable families. This means eligible families in the national capital will now get a total of Rs 10 lakh coverage for medical expenses.
According to officials, the National Health Authority (NHA) and the Delhi health department are finalising important aspects such as identifying beneficiaries, processing claims, and setting up a grievance redressal system. The teams are also working on integrating hospitals into the scheme, including those that were earlier empanelled directly by the NHA. These hospitals will now be part of Delhi’s state empanelment to streamline healthcare services under the scheme.
“Delhi government officials have already approached the NHA and we are working on onboarding Delhi into the scheme. This includes preparing beneficiary information and integrating hospitals that were previously empanelled directly by the NHA. These hospitals will now be part of Delhi’s state empanelment,” said Kiran Gopal Vaska, Joint Secretary and Mission Director of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
Training sessions for Ayushman card creation and claim submissions have already begun, officials said, adding that both central and state teams are working together to complete the necessary preparations so that the benefits can be disbursed as soon as possible.
‘Namami Yamuna’
The murky Yamuna water has witnessed much battle in past years, with the AAP and BJP trading barbs over accountability. Now, taking charge of the city after 27 years, the saffron government had to demonstrate swift action, even if it was for the larger sake of the saffron. The government has brought in trash skimmers, weed harvesters, and dredgers along a 57-km stretch of the polluted River.
‘Sources’ said a plan is being drafted to clean the Yamuna. L-GVK Saxena emphasised, from Day One, the newly-formed Delhi government initiated a multi-pronged approach –‘short-term, medium-term, and long-term strategies’– to rejuvenate the Yamuna and combat air pollution.
Over the past six years, the Centre has allocated Rs 1,503 crore across multiple states for tackling Yamuna pollution, with a lion’s share,Rs 1,091 crore,funneledinto the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
Sources reveal, the cleanup initiative gained traction in January 2023, when the National Green Tribunal (NGT) established a High-Level Committee led by the L-G to spearhead restoration efforts. However, despite five ‘rigorous’ meetings overseeing the mission, a significant legal roadblock emerged. The erstwhile AAP government challenged the NGT directive in the Supreme Court. On July 10, 2023, then-CJI DY Chandrachud stayed the NGT’s order, effectively halting ‘progress’ on the river’s rejuvenation.
Now, while preliminary efforts had begun showing improvement in the Chemical Oxygen Demand (CoD) and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BoD) levels, the stalled initiatives led to a sharp deterioration in water quality. By early 2024, pollution levels reached alarming highs once again.
A fresh episode in the political spectacle surrounding the Yamuna unfoldedwhen DelhiChief Minister, Rekha Gupta, took charge. In a symbolic gesture, Gupta, flanked by her Cabinet colleagues, performed Yamuna Aarti at Vasudev Ghat, in what she termed a ‘renewed commitment’. The event was widely publicised by Delhi BJP, with prominent leaders including Baijayant Jay Panda, Parvesh Verma, Ashish Sood, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, and Kapil Mishra joining the ceremony.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Raj Bhushan Choudhary recently disclosed that faecal coliform contamination in the holy Yamuna had reached crisis levels across various states.In 2023, at its source in Yamunotri, Uttarakhand, the faecal coliform count was a negligible 2 MPN (Most Probable Number). However, downstream, pollution levels spiked alarmingly. At Dehradun, the count was 70 MPN. The catastrophe began in Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar, where levels stood at 5,700 MPN.
Further downstream, as it approached Delhi, pollution intensified. Sonipatrecorded 100 MPN while at Asgarpur, industrial and sewage discharge from the Shahdara and Tughlaqabad drains took coliform levels to 2,85,000 MPN. Even as the river entered UP, contamination remained critical, with Shahpur recording 35,000 MPN and Prayagraj 610 MPN.
Here, in Prayag, at its holy confluence with the Ganga, the citizen shall put all their miseries to rest, atone for their sins, and cleanse their mortal beings.
Sludge fest
‘No part of Delhi will see water logging this season,’ a radio advertisement had chimed in while you were still stuck in traffic sometime in January.Now, newly-ordained PWD and water minister Parvesh Verma completed the sentence on the third day of the Assembly; “If any part of the city sees waterlogging this monsoon, concerned officials will be suspended”
Sharing his plans for the city, Verma said he has set a deadline of 100 days for cleaning 77 drains in Delhi. “Though the target has been set for 100 days, our plan is to clean the drains earlier, before the Monsoon begins. I have sought before and after pictures and videos of every single drain. We have held almost 12 meetings over this. The department has been given clear instructions – desilt, use pumps, use whatever is required, but we will not tolerate water logging.”
Meanwhile taking a step towards a cleaner Yamuna, Verma said a 48-km stretch of the Yamuna will be redeveloped into a ‘green zone’, comprising jogging path, recreational andpicturesque scenic areas.“The industries releasing the industrial waste into the Yamuna will be fined;” we want to take Verma’s assurance for it.
Verma also emphasised that this year, Chhhat Puja will be held in a ‘better’ manner and amid ‘better’ waters.
He also spoke on wastage of potable water:“Leakages will be identified, old water lines will be changed, GPS system will be installed in water tankers and drainage cleaning process will be streamlined in a way that the officials could track where pipes have been desilted, where it has been disposed and so on.”
Now we can recall how the BJP had blamed the AAP dispensation for sanitation woes – garbage piles dotting street-corners, towering landfill sites,faulty waste management, etc. With tall promises, the AAP defeated the BJP in the MCD in 2022 but it failed to convince people on the ‘improvement’ in sanitation during the Assembly polls despite two years of in the corporation.
The saffron party promised to improve civic services after forming government.Delhi government, however, has little jurisdiction over civic works, especially sanitation, as it a MCD subject – where AAP, despite much tribulations, hold some dominion. Under such circumstances, the newly-formed government would require proper communication channels with the civic bodies to affect the ground in any way.
Leader of opposition in the MCD Raja Iqbal Singh claims the Executive Wing has clearly been instructed to chalk out a ‘fool-proof’ plan operationalising necessary measures for better and improved sanitation. “DEMS, a department authorised to ensure sanitation works across the city, has all necessary resources including man power, equipment, etc to execute the work. On many occasions in the past, like the Covid pandemic or the G20 Summit, they have done a commendable job. The AAP government had neither vision nor theinitiative to improve services. As far as flattening the garbage mountains are concerned, we will ensure deployment of more trommel machines. Besides, focus will be given on garbage segregation at source in coming days.”
Sanjay Gahlot, Chairman of Delhi Commission for Safai Karmcharis, says garbage crisis deepened due to the reluctance of the AAP dispensation. Instead of focusing on making civic infrastructure better, they focused on ‘freebies’. They ignored interests of sanitation workers in their time and now, once they have lost the Assembly, they are regularising 12,000 Safai Karmcharis.
“Around 78,000 sanitation workers were thoroughly ignored by the AAP in both MCD and government. Now, when rejected by people, they are claiming to protect their interests. Sanitation activities were derailed during their time due to lack of coordination between agencies like MCD, PWD, Jal Board. Many areas remain unclean due to the stagnation of water, poor drainage and sewerage, digging works, etc. Now when there is a strong and decisive government in the city…” he said.
Public pothole
The PWD has initiated ‘large-scale road repair and strengthening’ in Delhi, aiming to fix 54 key road stretches covering 120 km. The move comes as part of the new government’s agenda to improve road infrastructure, enhance safety, and ensure smoother traffic flow.
PWD officials said major arterial roads, including Vikas Marg, Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Noida Link Road, Patparganj Road, Maharishi Balmiki Marg, Shahdara Road, Rani Jhansi Road, Panchsheel Enclave Road, Mehrauli-Mahipalpur Road, and others, will undergo extensive repairs this year. Many of these roads have only seen patchwork repairs in the past few years, leading to persistent issues such as potholes, congestion, and broken surfaces.
PWD has proposed using cold milling technique, where the entire bituminous layer is scraped and replaced with a fresh top layer featuring glowing studs. Horticulture work will follow repairs, for the sake of beauty.
On average, 220–240 km of roads arestrengthened every year, with a cost of approximately Rs 2.5–3 crore per km. This year’s project is estimated to cost Rs 350 crore and is expected to begin after the final approval in early March.
However, officials noted logistical challenges, including pollution-related construction bans, permissions from various agencies, monsoon disruptions, and cold weather conditions. Given the limited five-month window available for roadwork, the department is prioritising high-traffic corridors and carrying out work in phases to minimise disruptions.
Experts have emphasised the need for phased execution and better traffic management to avoid bottlenecks. Measures such as diversions ahead of flyovers, proper signage, FM radio alerts, and Google traffic updates have been suggested to inform commuters in advance.
Apart from road strengthening, PWD has also committed to repairing 7,000 potholes by April. The department identified 6,671 potholes last year but failed to meet repair deadlines due to environmental restrictions and the Model Code of Conduct before elections.
Is the new administration ‘setting the tone for its tenure’?If all we expect our government to deliver is live-able sanitation, affordable healthcare, decent roads, and a cleaner environment (breathable air!), then sure. We have reasonably reduced our expectations from governments anyway.
River runs thick with silt, muck and mire
In 2023, at its source in Yamunotri, Uttarakhand, the faecal coliform count was a negligible 2 MPN (Most Probable Number). However, pollution worsened downstream. At Dehradun, it reached 70 MPN, rising sharply in Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar to 5,700 MPN. Near Delhi, industrial and sewage discharge at Asgarpur spiked coliform levels to a staggering 2,85,000 MPN. Even in UP, contamination remained critical, with recording 35,000 MPN and Prayagraj 610 MPN.
Hospitals being integrated into Ayushman
For the swift operationalization of the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the National Health Authority (NHA) and the Delhi health department are finalizing key aspects, including beneficiary identification, claim processing, and grievance redressal. They are also integrating hospitals into the scheme, including 75 previously empaneled by the NHA, now part of Delhi’s state empanelment, said Kiran Gopal Vaska, Joint Secretary and Mission Director of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
Big funds rolled out to repair ‘moon’ surface
On average, 220–240 km roads are strengthened every year, at an approximate cost of Rs 2.5–3 crore per km. This year’s project is estimated to cost Rs 350 crore and is expected to begin after the final approval in early March. However, officials noted logistical challenges, including pollution-related construction bans, permissions from various agencies, monsoon disruptions, and cold weather conditions. Given the limited five-month window available for roadwork, the department is prioritising high-traffic corridors.