AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal addressing a rally in support of the party’s Narela candidate, Sharad Chauhan, in New Delhi on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday (January 25, 2025) announced a comprehensive plan to overhaul the Capital’s sewer infrastructure within five years.

Mr. Kejriwal said significant progress has been made over the past decade to lay sewer lines in unauthorised colonies and work is on to connect every house to the system.

In a video message ahead of his three rallies in the Capital, Mr. Kejriwal said: “When our government was formed for the first time in 2015, we inherited several problems, one of the major ones being the sewer systems. There are 1,792 unauthorised colonies in Delhi. Before 2015, no developmental work was allowed in these colonies due to orders from the Supreme Court and the Centre. We overcame all these hurdles and started development work in all the unauthorised colonies.”

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He urged the people of Delhi not to panic and pledged to address pending issues rapidly after returning to power.

While the ruling party has been promising better utilities in unauthorised colonies, the BJP has been promising houses for those in unauthorised colonies.

Permanent solution’

Mr. Kejriwal recollected the state of the colonies when he assumed power. “They had no sewer pipelines, so all the sewage used to flow through drains and streets. Over the past 10 years, we have laid sewer pipelines on a large scale in almost all colonies. We are now working to connect every household to the sewer system,” he said.

The AAP chief promised to replace old, leaking, or damaged sewer pipelines on a war footing to resolve these problems permanently, if AAP is re-elected.

Addressing jansabhas in Narela, Rohini and Bawana, Mr. Kejriwal told voters not to make the mistake of voting for the BJP or all the work that has been done in Delhi will be stopped. Attacking the BJP’s manifesto, Mr. Kejriwal alleged that the BJP wants to stop free education, shut down moholla clinics and stop the welfare measures started by AAP.

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“Remember the summer of 2014, a year before AAP came to power. There were six-hour long power cuts. Now you get 24X7 electricity. Don’t press the lotus button or you will go back to getting six hour power cuts,” Mr. Kejriwal said.

He emphasised that he has great plans for Delhi’s children. First to provide a good school and college education and then to find them employment as well, “ but if they press the wrong button, the future of Delhi’s children will be over”. Talking about sewer lines, Mr. Kejriwal said “The Opposition party put cement in the sewer lines and stuffed stones in them so that they overflowed when I went to jail. When I came out I got many of them cleaned but I will transform the sewage system in the next five years,” he said.