MCD polls: AAP promises to make Delhi garbage-free within year

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal released the AAP's manifesto today just five days ahead of the municipal polls, promising to make Delhi free of vector-borne diseases, clear garbage and put an end to corruption in the three civic bodies.
The chief minister promised to make Delhi free of vector-borne diseases in the next three years, shut all landfills by 2019 and make the city spick and span within a year.
Several services rendered by the Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCDs) will be made available online to reduce corruption and a common redressal helpline number will also be launched, Kejriwal said.
He also promised to provide free treatment and medicines in the MCD-run healthcare facilities and improve its quality.

In the education sector, he announced that the quality of teaching would be enhanced and nursery and KG classes in MCD- run schools would be started.
Some of the announcements made today for MCD polls mirror the AAP's promises made during the Delhi Assembly polls.

The party is leaving no stone unturned to woo different sections of the society -- from sanitation workers to traders, a strategy which had worked well for the party in the Assembly polls.
The MCD polls will be a litmus test for the AAP in Delhi, following the party's poor show in Goa and Punjab Assembly polls and its defeat in the recent Rajouri Garden Assembly bypoll, where the party candidate could not save his deposit.

Berating the BJP-led MCDs for its "10 years of misrule", Kejriwal said the party which cannot take care of the city's garbage is "incapable" of ruling the national capital.
"These BJP people have even backstabbed their own Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) despite his call for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
"Solving problems of Delhi is not their cup of tea. We will fix all these issues. The Delhi government has put an end to water, education, health mafia. We will replicate that by dealing a heavy blow to mafias operating in the MCDs," he said.
To woo nearly 90,000 sanitation workers, the party has assured that they will get their salaries by seventh of every month, while the contractual labourers would be regularised.

He also assured to give protective gears for sanitation workers along with a health insurance scheme and Rs 50,000 fixed deposit for their daughters.
To end parking woes in the city, Kejriwal said the issue will be addressed through surface, multi-level and underground parking facilities.
Kejriwal said steps would be taken to tackle the menace of stray dogs and monkeys.
The party had earlier announced abolition of house tax, a promise the AAP feels will be an important agenda in the civic polls.
On that lines, the party will straighten rules so that people can make minor changes in their residence without approaching the MCD officials. Those who have already made such amendments will be regularised under a scheme.

Kejriwal said that voting for the Congress in the MCD polls would be "waste of votes" after former Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely joined the BJP.
The election to East, North and South Municipal Corporations will be held on April 23. Among the major contenders, the AAP is the last to release its manifesto.