Since Kejriwal came to power, the focus of the Delhi government shifted from infrastructure and urban development to freebies in terms of ration, water, electricity, and so on. To provide freebies, the Kejriwal government is compromising on the urban infrastructure, the result of which is visible in waterlogging and flooded streets in Delhi.
Till Sheila Dixit was in power, the single-minded focus of the Delhi government was infrastructure, and given the fact, urban infrastructure is most crucial to any city – it should be the focus of the government in urban areas.
However, the Kejriwal government brought the freebie culture of socialist politicians like Lalu Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav and, the people of the city are now witnessing its damage. The socialists appreciate Lalu Yadav for not increasing the passenger fare in railways but, the damage that was done to the railway infrastructure with unhygienic stations, unavailability of tickets, extreme rush due to unavailability of trains, delays due to single line infrastructure is often ignored.
Similarly, the Kejriwal government is providing better education and healthcare at public schools and public hospitals respectively; the cost of electricity and water is also low – but because the taxpayer’s money is being spent on these items, very little is left to built roads, bridges, sanitation, and other infrastructure projects that would ensure the growth of the city and make it sustainable.
Despite being a fully urban territory, the Delhi government spent only 4.9 per cent of its budget on urban infrastructure, 2.6 per cent on water supply and sanitation, and 4 per cent on roads and bridges.
The expenditure of the Delhi government on these items is comparable to that of other states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar – even though these states are 10-20 per cent while Delhi is more than 90 per cent urban. Proportionally, the expenditure of the Delhi government on such items should be 4-5 times more than other states of the country but, the Kejriwal government is too busy appeasing people with freebies to realize that. And this is hampering the growth of Delhi.
Forget building infrastructure, Kejriwal government is destroying whatever was built by the Shiela Dixit government. Kejriwal, to provide freebies, reduced the capital expenditure to one of the lowest, which led to the deterioration of the existing infrastructure and almost no new addition. Among the bodies which are bearing the brunt of Kejriwal’s freebie politics is Delhi Transport Corporation.
In June 2019, Kejriwal announced, “Women will be given free rides in DTC, cluster buses and the Delhi Metro. The government will bear their travel expenses.”
Kejriwal has not been able to implement free rides in Delhi Metro but implemented the same in Delhi Transport Corporation. The DTC had posted a loss of 942.89 crore rupees in 2013-14 before Kejriwal came to power. But since the AAP government came to power, the loss has increased exponentially to reach 1,750.37 crore rupees in 2018-19. In five years, for most of which AAP was in power, the loss of DTC doubled.
The loss doubled although the number of buses under DTC reduced from 5,223 in 2013-14 to 3,951 in 2017-18. In just four years, the number of DTC buses came down by almost 1,300 as no new bus was added at the expiry of old ones. Not just that, the number of DTC rides also came down to 29.86 lakh in 2017-18 from 31.55 lakh in 2016-17.
Kejriwal has remained loyal to ‘radical populism’, even if the people had to pay the cost in the long term. The Delhi Chief Minister understands the radical populism is the easiest way to win an election in an urban conglomerate like the capital city. And so far, he has worked in the same direction.
Free water, free power, free education, free health, and free metro rides- all these are the leaflets of Kejriwal’s urban populism. His politics has worked very well so far, but in the long run, the people of Delhi will pay for the loss, as the services will deteriorate over time with the lowering of Capital expenditure. And after almost seven years of his populist rule, the effect is already visible during this monsoon season.
