Kumari, 57, outside her house in Aliganj’s Indira Gandhi Camp, an area filled with clogged drains and dirty lanes.
| Photo Credit: Nikhil M. Babu
Standing outside her house in the narrow lanes of Indira Gandhi Camp, a slum cluster in central Delhi’s Aliganj which falls under Andrews Ganj ward, 57-year-old Kumari rued about the clogged drains and filthy lanes.
“About 15-20 years ago, workers used to come here and clean the streets and drains. Now, when the drains get clogged and start overflowing, we collect money and call someone to clean it. No one even sweeps the streets,” she said.
Salim, 49, the pradhan of the slum cluster, said he has complained about the situation to leaders of both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but in vain.
Highest turnout
For people living in the city’s slums and unauthorised colonies, who officials say register the highest turnout in municipal polls, missing basics still define their existence.
“There are eight government-built toilets each for men and women near the camp, but they are dirty and most of the time, half of them stay closed,” Mr. Salim elaborated.
At the Indira Gandhi camp JJ colony in Begumpur village of Malviya Nagar ward, residents say they never saw the previous councillor, BJP’s Anil Sharma, after the 2017 elections. The area earlier came under Hauz Khas ward, but has now been shifted to Malviya Nagar following the latest delimitation exercise.
Kishan Kumar, a resident of the area, said the main problem was of clogged drains. “Nobody comes to clean them,” he echoed Ms. Kumari from Aliganj.
MLA to the rescue
Khaleed Ahmed, who was passing by, said even though cleaning drains comes under MCD jurisdiction, local AAP MLA Somnath Bharti had got them cleaned several times. “I used to be a BJP supporter, but Bharti ji has always helped us. People in this area are going to vote for jhadu (broom, AAP’s poll symbol) this time,” he said.
Shameena, another resident of the area, said she too is going to vote for “Kejriwal’s party”, as he had given free electricity, water and free bus tickets for women.
Striking a different note, Himanshu Kumar Jha, who runs a small grocery shop, says people were also to blame. “Everybody has constructed chabutras (platforms outside houses) and covered the drains. And at the places they are open, there are pipes coming out of houses blocking them. Sanitation workers come regularly, but they can’t clear the drains,” said Mr. Jha, pointing to the covered drains.
While saying he will vote for the BJP, Mr. Jha claimed that 70% of the camp’s residents will go with AAP.
