AAP promises Delhi-like benefits in manifesto for local body elections in Ghaziabad

The party promises slashing house tax, rate of electricity and medical care, besides rooting out corruption if voted to power in the municipal elections likely to be held in November this year

Ghaziabad: After announcing its first list of candidates for the upcoming local body elections in Ghaziabad, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday said they soon roll out a development agenda for Ghaziabad on lines of Delhi.

The AAP rolled out its election manifesto. The agenda floated for Ghaziabad is similar to its pro-common man manifesto in Delhi. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The party said it will focus on the problems of the common man, revamp the education system, improve the existing government school system and the provision of clean drinking water, besides rooting out corrupt practices from the government agencies.

“The entire idea behind the local manifesto is to reduce corruption and pass the benefit of good governance to the common man,” AAP district convener Dr Sachin Sharma said.

“If we assume power at the local corporation, we will waive pending house tax amounts. Thereafter, we will halve the house tax rate and this will reduce burden of tax on the common man. The rates of electricity under the corporation area will also be halved. We will work towards providing cheap energy through waste-to-energy plants,” AAP state spokesperson Mukesh Kardam said.

AAP office bearers added that the provision of clean drinking water in public places will also be on their list of priorities.

They added that they will open ‘mohalla clinics’ like the AAP government has opened nearly 100 of these in Delhi. The ‘mohalla clinics’ are primary health centres in Delhi and offer essential health services, including medicines.

Another important point of AAP’s local manifesto is the creation of ‘mohalla sabhas’ in which people can give suggestions on local developmental works. AAP said they will ‘certify’ the work done before the payments are made to contractors.

“We will make the system of garbage collection from home free of charge. We will also focus on improving the city’s public transport system and improve connectivity with Delhi,” Dr Sharma said.

The concept of city bus service has failed twice in the past in three years as the agencies had to tackle mounting operational losses.

Talking about the upcoming elections, AAP members said they are working on booth-level strategy and have completed 80% work of readying their booth-level volunteers.