Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta has said that with the latest refusal of the Public Works Department (PWD) to undertake AAP government’s key project of providing free Wi-Fi across Delhi highlighted the latter’s failure to implement its most important poll promises and reflected poor governance.
Allegedly the PWD Department has cited lack of expertise and shortage of manpower as main reasons for its inability to undertake the work. The project was handed over to PWD from IT Department to ensure fast implementation of AAP government’s pet scheme.
Gupta said that earlier the project could not be implemented due to lack of coordination between Information Technology Department and the Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) of Delhi, which was initially entrusted with implementation of the Project.
The Government was to create 1,000 hot spots across the city to provide free Wi-Fi in the first phase on the pilot basis.
“The project could not be implemented either by Delhi Dialogue Commission or Information Technology Department or any other department. Dy CM Manish Sisodia had made a fresh allocation of Rs 100 crore to provide Wi-Fi facilities while presenting budget in the Delhi Assembly last month. Fearing failure, the government had not included the scheme in outcome budget. It did not set any timeline for its implementation,” said Gupta.
He claimed that the government had wasted more than three precious years in identifying the department which could implement the programme. For that CM Kejriwal could not blame either the Central Government or the L-G for his government’s failure.
He recalled that Dy. CM in his budget speech in 2015 had said that Wi-Fi is a major initiative in making Delhi a technologically advanced city.