New Delhi, Jun 13 (Zee News) : A day after sanitation workers in east and north Delhi called off their strike, garbage-filled roads in the national capital on Saturday became a political battleground as leaders belonging to the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party wielded the brooms and took part in the cleanliness drive.
This morning, Deputy Prime Minister Manish Sisodia was in his constituency Patparganj with other workers to clean the garbage that has filled the air in Delhi with a stench.
Other AAP leaders, including Ashutosh and Alka Lamba (in Chandni Chowk) and Sanjay Singh, were also seen cleaning loads of litter and rubbish scattered all over the roads.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay also took to the streets with a broom, and said: “We have target of 48 hours to clean Delhi.”
However, residents of various colonies here dismissed the AAP leaders` attempt to clean the roads of Delhi as just a photo opportunity. The residents refused to buy AAP's innocencein the entire matter, saying: “When everything has been cleaned, they are coming? Why? To do politics over the issue?”
News agency ANI also quoted residents as saying: “This is all AAP's doing, this is all `gandi rajneeti` (dirty politics).”
However, political parties continued to exchange tirade against each other.
AAP leader Aashish Khetan, amidst protest by residents, targetted the BJP, saying: “Who created this crisis? Who bankrupted the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)? Delhi will be cleaned when MCD is free of corruption.”
A news agency has, meanwhile, quoted Ashutosh as saying that it was to be pondered over why the MCD is considered to be so corrupt. A permanent solution needs to be found out for MCD workers, added Ashutosh.
Sanjay Singh, in the meantime, said the issue should not be politicised, and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Mayors and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should go together to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliberate upon the problems being faced by the MCD.
AAP MLA from Krishna Nagar, SK Bagga, who was, as per a TV channel, barred by the residents of his constituency from taking part in the drive, did not miss a chance to hit out at the BJP. “Now BJP is trying to take a revenge on people of Delhi because they did not vote for them.”
The war of words also erupted between AAP and Congress on Twitter.