Need govt with a big heart at Centre to address statehood

New Delhi, Dec 10: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a jibe at the NDA government over the statehood demand and said a "government with big a heart" was needed at the Centre to address this issue.

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 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 has 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 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.

If you cannot give full statehood to Delhi then keep NDMC areas, which we call New Delhi region, keep the police and land control to yourself. But the police and land and issues related to the MCD areas should be given to Delhi government," Kejriwal said.

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.

PTI