‘EVM fight will go on, even if we win’
INTERVIEW Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal talks to HT about solutions for Delhi’s civic mess, corruption and the relationship with LG’s office Now all files go to the LG – he is supreme, the elected government has almost become advisory… The MCD is much more independent. In MCD, the house is supreme. Violence has increased in the country. Violence in thought, violence in speech, violence in action. The State is accountable for curbing violence. It is not doing it. If there is no need, why should we tax people? If we can show that MCD could operate without charging house tax, it would become a model for the entire world.
We expect such a result as per our survey. In Rajouri, the election was completely local. It would be wrong to extrapolate it to across Delhi. When I resigned after 49 days, people got very angry. It took me five-six months to convince them. I apologised. People understood and gave us 67 seats. The same anger was palpable in Rajouri, that he (AAP legislator Jarnail Singh) left midway. But we didn’t get time to convince them. People vented out their anger. It doesn’t have a larger impact.
Secondly, the BJP has got fewer votes than the previous occasion. Last time, it got about 45,000 votes. This time it has come down to 41,000. The total voting percentage was 20% less. So their (BJP) numbers remained the same, but it’s looking high in percentage terms. But they are paying other taxes. If there is no need, why should we tax people? If we can show that MCD could operate without charging house tax, it would become a model for the entire world. Why should we charge house tax which is regressive? It leads to corruption. With one stroke, we can end harassment and make people’s lives easier, without much impact on revenue. It’s a win-win for everyone. The biggest issue is sanitation. Cleaning the city is not rocket science. Global tenders need to be floated. Sanitation levels in several European countries are very good. Bring those companies here, they will clean Delhi.
Second is solid waste management. Landfills have been converted into mountains. MCD spends crores on the lifting and disposing of garbage. But you can make money out of it. Several European nations buy garbage of other countries. Garbage has economic value. It can be turned around totally. You can use garbage to generate energy and compost.
The third major issue is vector-borne diseases. The only reason is lack of sanitation. Our MLA from Moti Nagar, Shiv Charan Goyal, made some local intervention, which has led to eradication of mosquitoes in the area. We’re not building castles in air when we say we will make Delhi free of mosquito, dengue and chik- ungunya. We have set a target of three years to do this. The fourth thing is MCDs have become financially bankrupt. We can make the MCDs self-sustainable. The sources of revenue generation of the MCDs are much more than the Delhi government, and the law allows us to explore many more. We can convert MCD into a modern, vibrant and financially self-sufficient organisation. More than corruption, there are mafias. Over the past two years, we have demolished five types of mafia. The first was the tanker mafia. In Kirari, the water business ran into crores. Several tankers used to feed the area, now not one is required. Water pipelines were laid in 80 colonies.
The second was the drug mafia. A mafia of 6-7 drug suppliers was controlling everything in government hospitals. They used to raise fake bills and share the spoils with others. No medicine supply was done in Delhi. Now, medicines are available in all hospitals. Earlier, patients were directed to buy medicines from outside. Now even a ₹2,000 tablet is available in Delhi government hospitals for free.
Third was the power discoms. Till the time Sheila Dikshit was in power, tariffs were revised every year. We have not allowed tariff revision over the past two years. Many accuse us of not providing subsidy to households consuming over 400 units per month. It’s them who have benefitted from this cap on tariff revision.
Then comes the mafia of contractors. Over-billing was the norm in all contracts of the PWD. I cite the example of construction of flyovers — we completed work in ₹200 crore instead of the estimated ₹325 crore. Other governments would have raised the bills to ₹1,000 crore.
The last was the education mafia. Schools are owned by politicians. We didn’t allow them to raise fees.
We have demolished five types of mafia. In MCDs, there are mafias as well — parking, hoardings and contractors. Only we can demolish them, nobody else.