File photo of Harsh Vardhan with senior BJP leaders at a rally
BJP chief ministerial candidate Harsh Vardhan today challenged Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to an open debate and said that the people of Delhi wanted to know about the plight of the city and the failures of the Congress government during her 15-year tenure.
He asked Dikshit to respond to the questions which the people of Delhi wanted answered and said, "if the Chief Minister likes it, she may debate me face to face".
The questions, he said, were related to the major problems in Delhi - price rise, corruption, the Commonwealth Games scams and fraud with people of unauthorised colonies.
"Dikshit has been CM for the last 15 years. But 30,000 people in her Assembly constituency are such that do not receive daily drinking water from Jal Board," Vardhan said.
He alleged that lakhs of children in Delhi were at the mercy of the education mafia.
"There is no proper arrangement for the treatment of the poor at hospitals. The CM is a woman but the women (of Delhi) are not safe in their houses," he alleged.
People are living in unauthorised colonies, slums, villages, rehabilitation colonies, 'jhuggis' and about two lakh people have no roof over their heads, he said.
The time has come for the Congress to answer to the people, he said.
"Dikshit will have to own responsibility for the loot, chaos and negligence in Delhi. People are fed up with the false promises of the Congress government.
"Even today, Delhi faces basic problems of water and power, education, health, price rise, corruption, unemployment, insecurity, scarcity of houses, etc.," he said.