‘AAP nirbhar or Aatmanirbhar’: Amit Shah’s salvo against Kejriwal ahead of Delhi civic polls

 Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who launched the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s waste-to-energy plant in Tehkhand, launched a scathing attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and accused him of running the government with the help of advertisements.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah. (File photo)

By Amit Bhardwaj: Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who launched the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s waste-to-energy plant in Tehkhand, launched a scathing attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and accused him of running the government with the help of repeated advertisements about old achievements.

In his thinly-veiled attack on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal ahead of the Delhi civic polls, the home minister questioned if the Delhi government was 'AAP nirbhar' or 'Aatmanirbhar'.

The waste-to-energy plant in southeast Delhi’s Tehkhand will produce 25 megawatts (MW) of power by utilising 2,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) daily being dumped at the Okhla landfill site. Waste-to-energy plants burn waste to produce steam which runs turbines to generate electricity.

Slamming Kejriwal, Shah said, “He has accepted that press interviews create changes. He said advertisements can mislead the public.”

However, people can be misled once or twice, but not thrice, Shah said.

“I want to ask CM Kejriwal why we had to unify the MCDs. A due of Rs 40k crore was not paid by the Kejriwal government,” he said.

“The AAP government gave step-motherly treatment to MCD and misbehaved with the MCD,” he said.

“We want to assure people that AAP might be in power in Delhi, but in the Centre, we are in power. We will deliver development projects,” he said.

The dates for elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi will be announced anytime soon as the Central government on Tuesday ratified the final report of the delimitation committee on redrawing the wards of the civic body. The Centre issued a notification ratifying the final report of the delimitation committee. According to the notification, a total of 250 wards have been chalked out for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, of which 42 wards will have to be reserved for Scheduled Castes.