Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Delhi House puts Sheila before Sonia, PM



NEW DELHI: In the absence of opposition BJP, the short duration discussion on Commonwealth Games in the Assembly on Tuesday turned into a rich eulogy of chief minister Sheila Dikshit. It didn\'t stop at that. Paeans were also sung to CM\'s son Sandeep Dikshit for his resignation from the OC many months ago and to her family for making guests comfortable.



In a remarkable diversion from the usual Congress culture, Sonia Gandhi was mentioned just once and the PM a couple of times with Sheila Dikshit stealing the show for everything from infrastructure upgrade to stemming CWG corruption.



The only criticism a mild one at that came from LJP MLA Shoaib Iqbal who lauded the government\'s efforts but also pointed out how the CM had done little to answer corruption charges against many departments. \"Take the case of your own FOB collapse. It was an unfortunate incident and a challenge to the government. You should rise up to it and table the inquiry report in this House and also tell us what action has been taken here,\'\' he said. Iqbal also mentioned corruption in the OC and talked about how MLAs were made to run around for two passes. \"Compare this with the royal reception we got in Melbourne Games. It is clear that such a man should definitely be sent to jail,\'\' he said referring to bosses in the OC.



In her reply, the CM reiterated the Delhi government stand on expenditure saying that Games projects cost the exchequer about Rs 3,752 crore while cost of city infrastructure projects stood at Rs 11,077 crore. The Union sports ministry in its report on Games expenditure had mentioned that the Delhi government had spent Rs 16,650 crore on the mega event.



Dikshit said: \"We have not burdened anybody. We have generated our own resources and in doing that we have not imposed any fresh taxes on the city. We have simply strengthened our collection system to spend on the city the kind of money which we would probably have done over a period of 10-12 years.\'\' This, she added, actually saved money because inflation would have added several times to the cost had the city government undertaken projects like acquiring the DTC bus fleet and augmenting water and power supply later.



She dared anybody \"from the CVC to the CAG to the CBI\'\' to look into Delhi government\'s role. \"We are ready and we are open. But what would a House Committee have achieved? Does it have more powers than this august institution? And I would like to know why V K Malhotra kept quiet all these years.\'\' She was critical of the DDA\'s role and said their \"complete non-cooperation\'\' had jeopardised projects, a statement that could be interpreted as yet another salvo in the CM-vs-LG tussle that most government insiders think is on.



Earlier her partymen sang flowing praises. Nasseb Singh talked about how, at the opening ceremony every time her name was mentioned she received rousing applause. \"This shows that in the public psyche all Games preparations were synonymous with Sheila Dikshit,\'\' he said. Anil Bharadwaj congratulated Sandeep for his resignation, putting him up as an example to V K Malhotra who \"is a part of the OC but never raised a stink till he saw political benefits to be garnered out of doing so\'\'. Malhotra, in fact, was targetted by every speaker in what was clearly a well thought out strategy to take the heat off the government.






News From: http://www.7StarNews.com

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