Money Does Not Grow On Trees, Mr. Chief Minister

The recently concluded elections in the State of Delhi has given a landslide victory for the Aam Aadmi Party. A creditable achievement, no doubt for the upstart party.

The victory though was a tad tainted because of many tall claims and promises in the AAP Manifesto for the elections. Some may be tempted into saying that AAP has promised the citizens of Delhi the moon!

Nevertheless, I just randomly picked some of the key promises highlighted on social media and listed below...

...and, estimated how much it is likely to cost the exchequer. So, here goes:

1. 500 new schools: This is likely to cost an average of Rs.20 million each to set up (including cost of buildings, classroom furniture, teaching infrastructure, etc.) assuming a certain minimum standard is going to be maintained. That's is Rs. 10,000 million (or Rs.1000 crores)
2. 20 new colleges: This is likely to cost an average of Rs.50 million each to set up (including cost of buildings, classroom furniture, laboratories, etc.), provided a certain minimum standard is to be maintained. That works out to Rs.1,000 million (or Rs. 100 crores)
3. 1,500,000 CCTV cameras: An ambitious initiative. The manifesto per se is mum about this. However, during election speeches this number was bandied about. Let us assume the cost of each camera (including installation costs) is going to be Rs. 5,000. The total works out to: Rs. 7,500 million (or Rs.750 crores)
4. 200,000 public toilets: Let us assume each toilet is going to cost a minimum of Rs.100,000. The total cost of executing this ambitious promise will be a whopping Rs.20,000 million (or Rs. 2,000 crores)

Just FOUR of the SEVENTY promises in the manifesto amount to roughly 4,000 crores. Or, over 10% of the entire 2014 budgeted expenditure of New Delhi. That is putting it conservatively!

Needless to say, I have only looked at the cost of creating the infrastructure for just four items. One would have to add operational expenses appropriately to each of those promises.

I dread to think of how much Delhi will incur if all seventy promises of AAP were to be fulfilled. Perhaps, the DELHI ECONOMY WOULD BE BANKRUPTED BEYOND REPAIR!!

Food for thought!

Million Dollar Question: Will Mr. Arvind Kejriwal end up having to chew his promises five years later, come election time again?

Well, your guess is as good as mine!