Arvind Kejriwal seeks citizens' participation for 'smart' Delhi

New Delhi, Sept 11: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday pitched for industry's participation in making the national capital a 'smart city' while stressing that departmental procedures were being "simplified" by the AAP government in ensuring 'ease of doing business'.

He also invited suggestions pertaining to labour reforms, rooting out corruption, and simplifying procedures in various government departments towards facilitating business and trade related activities.

"We talk of smart cities. We talk of building 100, 200 smart cities. I think let us make Delhi a smart city first. Let's make the nation's capital a smart city first. I invite you all to participate...the govt will do its part with complete honesty," Kejriwal said at a CII event.

Responding to a query on whether the Delhi government was mulling labour law reforms in line with Rajasthan government's steps in this regard, Kejriwal said, "Give it to me in writing. Write to me your suggestions, good practices being practised by other governments."

He said a government constituted committee was looking into the bottlenecks in each and every department. In five-six months we will "simplify" the procedures of several departments, Kejriwal said.

"Industry should collaborate and make the government aware of the problems faced with respect to various departments as the wearer knows where the shoe pinches," Kejriwal said.

Let's make the nation's capital a smart city first: Kejriwal

The Chief Minister said that he would ensure that the AAP government goes beyond "big talk" in seminars and actually take concrete steps towards facilitating ease of doing business in the city.

"We have recently put in place a single window system for organising events. We need to go into the nuts and bolts of each department instead of just talking," he said.

Kejriwal identified "corruption" as the biggest impediment being faced by businessmen while stressing that AAP government has brought down graft considerably. "Subsequently cost of doing business has come down by 30 to 40 per cent."

He also urged the industry to augment their CSR initiatives in the areas of education and health while promising to make sure that the money would be spent with absolute transparency and honesty.

"We have put an end to routine VAT raids. We have instead opted for information and analysis based raids. But the level of evasion is very high.

In such cases of evasion we will ensure punishment and make an example out of such people," Kejriwal said in a message to traders.

PTI