Sonia asks CM to speed up schemes for poor

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 13.

Amid heightened political activity, the Delhi Chief Minister, Ms. Sheila Dikshit, met the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, last night and discussed a number of issues including the working of her government, Ministers, functioning of the party and the forthcoming MCD elections.

Ms. Gandhi, it is believed, directed the Chief Minister the Delhi Government to speed up measures for the deprived sections and launch schemes for their upliftment. She also stressed the need to make the administration more responsive to the needs and aspirations of the common man. At the same time, she asserted that the Government should work with full commitment to honour the promises made in the election manifesto.

Ms. Gandhi is also understood to have told Ms. Dikshit that her Ministers should give more time to redress the grievances of the electorate and take all measures to mitigate their sufferings. At the same time, Congress workers and partymen should be given due weightage and the level of interaction of the leaders and Ministers should be more at the ground level.

It is believed that during the discussions the Chief Minister also raised the issue of show cause notice to the Hauz Khas MLA, Ms. Kiran Walia, for alleged anti-party activities in the recently Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) elections. This is the second meeting of the Chief Minister with Ms. Gandhi is the last fortnight.

It is understood that Ms. Dikshit apprised the party president of the circumstances which led to the issuing of notice to Ms. Walia and reportedly explained she had at no point issued any provocative statement nor she had actively worked for the opposition candidate.

Moreover, the party was not contesting the polls on its own and was only supporting an outside candidate. She explained that the action against Ms. Walia was ``too harsh'' and in the past many people, including certain MLAs, had got away with hitting out at the Chief Minister inside and outside the Vidhan Sabha.

Ms. Gandhi is understood to have expressed ``surprise'' over the failure to constitute the DPCC(I), which was important for the party which was about to face elections. She asked Ms. Dikshit to take up the matter with the party general secretary, Mr. Kamal Nath and DPCC(I) president, Mr. Subhash Chopra, as it was important to have a party structure in place well before the party went into the election mode. Despite promising to submit the names of PCC(I) contenders and also of the block presidents, Mr. Chopra is yet to come out with the list and submit it to Mr. Kamal Nath.

Ms. Dikshit is also understood to have apprised the Congress president the initiatives taken by her government for various sections, particularly the down-trodden, SC/ST and Dalits for their upliftment. This includes the financial assistance to students in this category to pursue higher education. Apart from this, the Chief Minister mentioned the Right to Information Act which would provide access to the people to documents and files. Ms. Dikshit also apprised the party president about the discussions held at the Coordination Committee meeting on September 3. The Chief Minister is learnt to have also mentioned about the fulfillment of the most of the poll promises made by the party during the 1998 elections.

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