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Since the last few Union Budgets, the middle class has been feeling uneasy especially regarding taxation etc. How is Delhi’s middle class different from the general middle class of India under the Delhi Model?
First of all, I think you are right. The fact is that India’s middle class is feeling the heat because of the idea of the Gujarat model. The Gujarat model is giving huge incentives and relief only to rich industrialists and corporates. In Delhi Model we have done a lot of work for the middle class. Delhi’s inflation is around 2.2% while India’s inflation is around 4.8%.
Free electricity is for 70 percent of the population. The other 20 percent electricity is heavily subsidized. So, the middle class comes under that 90%. Water is free for about 60 percent of the population.
Mohalla Clinic – People go to tertiary care which is free. We have an angel plan for accidents.
Those who talk about free facilities and unfairly target the AAP model, forget that the money we are giving for free as benefits to the poor and middle class can be used to invest in infrastructure. Is after. In Delhi, in the last ten years, we have built about 38 flyovers. Before that, 62 flyovers were built in 65 years.
So, you can see the rate at which we have expanded the infrastructure of Delhi. The Delhi Metro network has doubled in the last ten years, the first metro network took 17 years. We have brought 2000 electric buses. All of these are contributing to reducing pollution and helping the environment.
We have four lakh CCTV cameras installed in Delhi which is the highest number of CCTV cameras anywhere in the world. We have installed four lakh street lights. So, we spent a lot on infrastructure. The last element I would say is corruption. The biggest reason why the middle class is cynical towards politicians and the government is that they think everyone is corrupt. Aam Aadmi Party was born out of the anti-corruption movement.
And what is very interesting is that as soon as we came to power, the anti-corruption branch was taken away from us, the Lokpal Bill was stopped by the Centre. But what we did after that is something that only the middle class of Delhi experiences.
