Poor accountability cost Congress Delhi civic polls: RWAs

New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) A day after the results of elections to the trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) were announced, the Residents' Welfare Associations (RWAs) of Delhi say that the indifferent attitude towards problems of residents and unaccountability made the Congress lose in the civic polls.

"Inflation, increase of milk prices every second day, power tariff hike, poor roads and sewage system worked against the Delhi government. RWAs, Muslims and other voters' support, on which the Delhi government used to rely, is over. The government should rethink its anti-people policies and work for better Delhi for coming Lok Sabha and assembly elections," said Anil Bajpai, president of Delhi Residents' Forum and the RWA Federation of East Delhi.

The RWAs cited the increased power tariff and unannounced increase in water bills as one of the main reasons for the Congress's defeat in the civic polls.

"Various representations and objections to the government and the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Authority (DERC) against power tariff hike were thrown into waste basket. Congress sided with the private power distributors. Similarly, water tariff was increased unannounced, burdening the citizens. Earlier, RWAs and other forums were consulted and their suggestions were incorporated by the Sheila government," Bajpai said.

The RWAs also said that the 'Bhagidari', the partnership between the citizen groups and the state government, is almost over across the city. Only a chosen few and favourites of the Delhi government among the RWAs were being looked after, they alleged.

"Earlier, an email to the Chief Minister's Office was enough from the RWA. The CM herself used to take interest and intervene. Now, there is no citizens complaint cell in place. Delhiites are on their own and have to find their own way," added Bajpai.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained control of Delhi's civic body, securing 138 of the 272 seats of the three newly created municipal corporations in the city, while the Congress improved its last time's tally of 64 and ended up with 77 seats.