Aam Aadmi Party will contest elections in Gujarat next year if people ask for it and Delhi might see the return of odd-even scheme are some of the many issues revealed by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in his first live webcast "Talk to AK" on Sunday.
With an eye on the assembly polls in Gujarat, Punjab and Goa, Kejriwal slammed the Centre for trying to paralyse his government and compared the relation between Centre-state as similar to India-Pakistan.
Here are the highlights of what Kejriwal said during his two hour session which included a 47-minute monologue on the achievements made by his government after which he took questions from callers across the country.
On his government's priorities: Four focus areas of my government are - education, health, electricity and water.
On government schools: Deputy CM Manish Sisodia is working day and night to improve the condition of government schools the capital.
On corruption in school admissions: Neither I nor Manish have recommended a single person for admission into any school. My son still studies in Noida. We passed an order for fees to be refunded. If it can happen in Delhi, why not in Gujarat, Goa, Punjab and Chhattisgarh.
On education system: This is a warning. Don't mess around with the youth of the country. Don't mess around with the education system in the country.
On budget allocated for education: When we came to power we increased the education budget from 5000 to 10,000 crores. When the central govt came to power, they reduced it from from 82,000 Cr to 68,000 Cr , reduced it by 25% and then increased it by 5% to 71,000 Cr.
On farmer suicides: I pleaded with the PM for a one time waiver of loans of all farmers. If loans given to 10 -15 industrialists worth Rs 4000 Cr to 5000 Cr can be waived off, why not farmer loans. I have asked for implementation of the Swaminathan report and action be taken against hoarders of dal.
On contradictory claim that Modi is not letting him work and at the same time announcements of Delhi govt's achievements in full page ads: Work is done on the ground. Had we not faced these obstacles, the pace of our achievements would have been faster.
On frequent transfer of officers: 11 of our officers were transferred. Central Govt did not even consult us. They have the powers, they say. But why not consult the state government? Do you have to misuse the power? Am I a dictator? Am I a Tanashah? Democracy runs on dialogue.
On free wifi promise: PS Rajinder Kumar was appointed as the in charge of the project. After his arrest I have appointed a new person and you will hear from us very soon.
On complaints of corruption: Central Govt took over the ACB by using paramilitary. Today if anyone takes a bribe, I cannot do anything. We have sent 32 cases from the Delhi government and another 150 complaints from citizens to the ACB, yet there has been no action.
On mid-day meal scheme: We wanted to get Akshay Patra for midday meals. Yet the LG disallowed it.
On crunch in hospitals: DDA is not giving us land for hospitals at market rates.
On Centre Vs AAP: I apologised to the PM and requested him to stop the daily tussle.
On why Delhi government ads get published in other state newspapers: If we are doing good work in Delhi, the word should spread so that it attracts more investments.
On office of profit allegations: MLAs could not go beyond their area, they needed an authenticity. So we had to give them the position. We have spoken to top lawyers. They are of the opinion that it is not an office of profit as there is no pecuniary gain. I hope the EC takes a fair decision.
On increasing MLA salaries: MLAs were paid only 12,000 per month until we took over. We raised their salary to 50,000. The rest of the amount will be based on the work they do for constituency. If you don't pay them, you are opening the opportunities for corruption.
On solid waste management: It is Municipal Corporation of Delhi which is responsible for the city's cleanliness and that is under the control of the BJP. And they have made a complete mess of it which means we will take another two years to get things moving swiftly.
On referendum in Delhi: There is no provision of a referendum in the Constitution. What we can do is an opinion poll on whether statehood, police, DDA should be under the government or with the Centre and then move ahead.
On playing the victim card: I have only repeated the issues with the Centre again.
On AAP fighting elections in Gujarat: There is an atmosphere of oppression in Gujarat. Police is being used to file false cases against people associated with the Patidar movement. AAP does not fight elections, people fight elections. If people of Gujarat want to fight elections, then we will.
On arrest of AAP MLAs: I can show the court orders related to Commando Surinder and Akhilesh Tripathy's cases to prove how false the cases against them were. I have told my MLAs to be ready to go to jail , else resign. It is possible that we may even lose your life, this is the second freedom struggle. If we die, we will be called martyrs, if we win, we will be called courageous but if we run away, we will be called cowards.
On Principal Secretary Rajinder Kumar: It appears that he is honest. Had he not worked with me, he would not have been put in jail. That is the message the Centre wants to send out to officers of Delhi government.
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