Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is holding an interactive session, titled 'Talk to AK', today where people from across the country can ask him questions over the phone, through text messages and social media.
Next 'Talk to AK' in a month or month and a half
All SMSes that have come will be replied by the government
Q. What are you doing for sports (to Manish Sisodia)
A. We have opened new grounds all over Delhi. Started kabaddi competition all over. We have increased funding to sportspersons
Q. Where is WiFi?
A. Rajendra (Kumar) ji was looking after it. I have to appoint a new minister now (he was arrested on July 4 on corruption charges). But we laying a fibre optic cable network in Delhi - it will take 2-3 years
Meanwhile, we will create a network of hotspots. By December-January it will be operational in East Delhi, if it isn't nulled-and-voided by L-G
Q. How are you trying to use the youth power for your government?
None of us were from politics. India is a country of youth. We want the youth to participate in politics on a large scale. We have started the CM's urban fellowship programme - more than 9,000 have people applied.
Q. What are your ideas for waste management in Delhi?
We can do so many things to fix this, we hope to be able to address this better when we take over the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. It will take 1-1.5 year, but we will clean up Delhi.
Q. You say the Centre and PM interferes in your work, why don't you do a referendum in Delhi and place the results in front of the PM?
This is very good idea. We were thinking of doing an opinion poll like this. And we will certainly do it.
Q. What is your response to Yatin Oza's letter?
A. Yatin Oza, a lawyer from Gujarat is considered close to BJP chief Amit Shah. He wrote a letter about a meeting between Akbaruddin Owaisi and Amit Shah
Q. Why are you against the Central government all time, are you playing the victim card?
A. 14 bills pending, 11 officers transferred - we are not victims, Delhi is the victim. People are suffering because of their revenge
Q. We are very concerned about education in Punjab, will you do here what you have done in Delhi?
A. Yes, it can be done. We will do it together.
Q. There is no freedom to raise questions in Gujarat. Will you contest here? (Brijesh from Ahmedabad)
A. I went to Gujarat on invitation of traders from Surat, but Gujarat government threatened the traders. There is a culture of oppression in Gujarat, they told me many of them have been charged with sedition. As far as AAP contesting is concerned, it is not AAP but it is people who fight, if they decide to, we are with them.
Q. I have complained for months about the water pipeline in our area but nothing has happened. The entire road is dug up we are facing problems- Ranjeet Mathur, Tughlaqabad
A- I'll send some officer tomorrow.
Q. What was the need of increasing salaries of legislators?
A- We have a zero tolerance policy to corruption. There used to be a culture of working without salary but they took money from everywhere else. We wanted to stop it. An MLA used to Rs 12,000 as salary, we have increased to Rs 50,000 is that too much?
If we don't you'd be forcing them to resort to corruption
Q- Why did you appoint Parliamentary secretary?
A- We have appointed one secretary Praveen Kumar to check what is happening in schools. He goes on rounds to check, but we have not given him in anything return. We gave him the rank to give an authenticity so he could go into schools. For Office of Profit, there needs to be a pecuniary gain, which is not there.
Vishal Dadlani - the moderator of the session - asks questions
Q- At one end you say Modi ji is not letting you work, but you put crores of ads to say what you are doing in Delhi
Arvind Kejriwal: Not 536 crore, we have spent Rs 75 crore on ads in the entire last one year. If they had not created this India-Pakistan-like situation in Delhi, we could have done four times more
Q- So why do we spend money on ads in other states?
Because the whole the country wants to know what is happening in Delhi. Look at the coverage of TV channels - they also focus on Delhi. When so much work is happening in Delhi, should I not tell people to come and invest, engage in Delhi?
Arvind Kejriwal Takes Question
What Delhi Chief Minister Proposed To PM At the Inter-State Council Meet
1) Forgive all loans of all farmers for one time
2)Enforce the Swamnithana Report - which says give the farmer a 50% profit on their produce
3) Compensate farmers at a fair price
4) Make their medical expenses free
Targets Centre
The Jan Lokpal Bill is pending with the Centre for 8 months. 14 such Bills are pending with the Centre: Arvind Kejriwal
Kejriwal with his deputy Manish Sisodia and singer and music composer Vishal Dadlani.
By December 2017, Delhi Will Have Pipeline Water: Arvind Kejriwal
We believe that water is a fundamental right of a common man
There is a notion water should be sold now, but we believe that we should give people a basic amount of water for free
They said the Jal Board would go bankrupt, but at the end of the year the Jal Board had an excess revenue of Rs 173 crore
Delhi is the capital of the country but they did not have tap water. After we came to power 263 new colonies have got pipelines.
By December 2017, entire Delhi will have pipeline water
All these water purifiers and ROs are fads, they were not there when we were young
Arvind Kejriwal's Advise To State Governments
We worked on war footing for the four things
We mapped all schools of Delhi - how many students, teachers, classrooms
8,000 new classrooms have been made in Delhi that's close to 200 new schools
We don't want more than 50 children in one classroom
They will be better than private schools - you will find it difficult to believe your eyes
You will not need to give them jobs, they will give you jobs
About Schools In The Country
The state of schools in our country is very sad. Recently we saw a scam involving toppers. How children are being made to buy degrees
You can imagine what the condition of our countries are going to be
When we took over Delhi, we came with the idea that putting money on education was an investment
Our first cabinet meet decided that education was most critical
We doubled the budget of education from Rs 5,000 to 10,000 crore
This perhaps happened for the first time since independence
We found that the basic necessities weren't available in schools. The condition of toilets was despicable
4 Issues Dear To AAP Government
1) Education
2) Health
3) Water
4) Electricity
Arvind Kejriwal's Take: Highlights
I have given interviews to the media from time to time, but I often find questions of the people are different from the media
Hence this I went to Goa, there I interacted with the youth, and they asked me very interesting questions. I realised there must be a platform to directly interact with the public
And one thing is certain, you can only face the people if you are honest from within
For the last 1 year there is an AAP government in Delhi. We have always said there is no dearth of money in politics, there is a dearth of intent. Our last 1.5 years have proven this right
We are saving a lot of money in government programmes. The work of Rs 100 is being completed in Rs 60-70
For example
In Bihar they started building a bridge in Hajipur for Rs 300 crore, when it finished it came out to thousands of crores
"Direct conversation with public must," says Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal