Mumbai, Dec 28 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has earned praise from an unlikely quarter - Bal Thackeray. The Shiv Sena supremo has said she was the “only man” in the Congress as she has raised the politically touchy issue of how the burgeoning population of migrants was overwhelming Delhi and stretching its resources to the limit.
In an editorial in Monday’s Saamna, the party newspaper, Thackeray lauded Dikshit for her bold views on thorny issues and her administrative acumen. An example was Dikshit’s view on how waves of migrants from the neighbouring states - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, etc - have swelled Delhi’s population and caused a run on its resources and facilities, something similar to what was happening in Mumbai, the editorial noted.

Dikshit had expressed concerned over unchecked migration from neighbouring states like Bihar and said she wanted a common economic and taxation zone, comprising Delhi and the satellite towns, to cut down the flow of migrants to the city.

Thackeray said that people from neighbouring states created a big headache for the Delhi state administration where the population has multiplied from 1.4 million at the time of independence in 1947 to 16 million now.

“Despite this massive growth in population, the size of Delhi has remained the same while the neighbouring states are not willing to concede even an inch of space,” he pointed out.

The editorial added that when the Shiv Sena was founded 45 years ago on similar principles, of safeguarding and saving Mumbai from the migrant problems, everyone opposed it. He said that because of the heavy influx into the island city, even festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi and Navratri were being celebrated on the roads since all government land was usurped by squatters.

“The principle here seems to be: ‘Go and Come, It’s Your Home,’ and the Congress keeps on regularizing these illegal slums with new cut-off dates. But where are the basic amenities like water supply and collecting taxes from these slum dwellers,” he asked.

Referring to Dikshit’s observations that another 100-200 new townships would be required to accommodate the population of Delhi state, Thackeray said that even that has failed in Mumbai.

“Look at the condition of (neighbouring areas like) Thane and Navi Mumbai,” he said of these areas which were intended to be alternatives to decongest Mumbai.

“The population of Mumbai, which was barely 4 million in the 1960s, today stands at 13 million, but there is no corresponding increase in infrastructure, roads, water supply, health care facilities, etc,” the editorial said.

Complimenting Dikshit for raising concern about the plight of Delhi, Thackeray asked: “Mumbai’s ‘vastraharan’ (disrobing) continues, who will save this city from sinking?”