Congress’ report card

With 36 days left for the assembly elections in Delhi, HT does a reality check on what the ruling Congress promised in its election manifesto before the 2003 polls and what it actually delivered during the last five years.

With 36 days left for the assembly elections in Delhi, HT does a reality check on what the ruling Congress promised in its election manifesto before the 2003 polls and what it actually delivered during the last five years.

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Statehood for Delhi
The Congress in its 2003 election manifesto had promised that it would demand full statehood for the National Capital from the Central government.
Status It has remained an unfulfilled promise.

Augmenting power generation capacity
Promised to set up a 700 MW gas-based unit at Indraprastha power station and another 1000 MW gas plant in Bawana.
Status In the last five years both power plants have remained on paper only. The new deadline for completion of the Bawana plant has now been extended to 2010.

Reorganisation of the MCD
The 2003 party manifesto mentioned reorganisation of the present MCD into small municipal corporations for better governance.
Status Despite the issue being raised a number of times in the last five years, political compunctions saw to it that nothing happened on the ground.

Regularisation of unauthorised colonies
The manifesto promised that the policy to approve unauthorised colonies would be approved during its term.
Status With the Supreme Court questioning the basis of the recent regularisation policy, the government has now made do with provisional regularisation of unauthorised colonies.

Augmentation of water supply
Status The party fulfilled just half its promises on the water front. While it managed to complete the 140 MGD Sonia Vihar water treatment plant, albeit a year late, it failed to complete the Munak canal, which was to bring 90 MGD water from Haryana.

Better public transport
The manifesto promised that modern public transport modes like high-capacity urban buses and electric trolleys would be introduced in identified road corridors.
Status While the high capacity system ran into problem because of the poorly-conceived bus corridor, electric trolleys have remained on paper.