‘Govt with big heart’ can address statehood: CM

He also said if the Centre does not want to accord full statehood to Delhi then it should keep areas under New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), its land and police rights with itself, and give the areas under Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCDs), its land and police rights to Delhi government. “For that you need a government with a big heart. Now we have to see whether the present government will show that big a heart or the next government,” he said.

Noting that people of Delhi pay Rs 1.30 lakh crore to the Centre in terms of Income Tax but get only Rs 350 crore in return, Kejriwal said: “Even the British had not looted Delhi the way the Centre has.” 

“All parties say that Delhi should be given the status of full statehood. They promise that in their manifestos and after winning the polls they say we didn’t actually mean it.

People often joke that you are the one-fourth Chief Minister of a half state.

“In 1993 when BJP came to power, Congress was at the Centre. After Congress came to power in Delhi, the BJP was at the Centre. Then for 10 years, the Congress was in power both at the Centre and Delhi. At any point of time the Centre did not lose its control over Delhi,” Kejriwal said. 

“The Centre should show a big heart and view this issue from a larger perspective and give full statehood to Delhi. 

The Delhi Chief Minister was speaking at a conference on ‘Small States and Pro-People Paradigm’ which was moderated by former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Chattisgarh’s Raman Singh and Jharkhand’s Raghubir Das. 

In response to a question on whether the decision on ‘Odd Even Formula’ for private vehicles should have been taken after consulting people, Kejriwal said: “The decision on Odd Even Formula has been taken with a lot of thinking. We have 20-25 days. In this time span we are having a dialogue with people and seeking their suggestions.” “A suggestion of having vehicles run on CNG and we are thinking about it. Many such suggestions are pouring in. We will try this Odd Even Formula once. If it is successful then we can implement it again. If not then it can be dropped.