Security of women, reducing pollution, free bus rides for students, cleaning River Yamuna priority in next tenure: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asserted that if re-elected to power for the third time in the Delhi Assembly election 2020, his government will take up several issues including security of women, working on reducing pollution, cleaning up River Yamuna, free bus rides for students, and providing 24-hour clean water facility to every citizen of Delhi on priority basis in the next five years. Addressing a Town Hall session in Maharaja Agrasen College in East Delhi, CM Kejriwal said that the wants to make Delhi the cleanest city in the world. 

Speaking on the importance of the security of women in the city, the CM said, "We are very concerned about the safety and security of women in Delhi. The government, the police, and the society need to work on the issue on a war mission basis. We have installed CCTV cameras, deployed bus marshals, and are installing street lights across the city. The police need to strengthen their force and need to instill people's faith in themselves. Police should work on establishing such a system, that if a woman is in danger, she should first contact the police," said CM Kejriwal.

On being asked whether he is confident about his win in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, Arvind Kejriwal said, "AAP will win in Delhi. We are witnessing different voting patterns in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. Even though Odisha had assembly elections on the same day as the Lok Sabha elections, Naveen Patnaik was elected as the Chief Minister of Odisha by the people. We are witnessing the same trend across the country.”

In a reply to whether he considers the non-disclosure of the face of their chief ministerial candidate by the opposition an advantage, CM Kejriwal said, "The people will decide on who to vote for. I believe the people of Delhi and I know they will vote on the basis of work done by the
government."

Speaking on the next five years if the AAP comes to power, he said that his government will work with complete honesty to improve the lives of the people of Delhi in the last five years. "We have already worked in the fields of education and health, constructed roads, installed sewer pipelines, CCTV cameras, subsidized water and electricity, and things that were not done in the last 70 years. A lot still needs to be done. We have to clean the river Yamuna and the entire city of Delhi. We have to revamp the transport sector and work on eradicating pollution from Delhi. Cleaning up river Yamuna is our priority in the next five years. The river is polluted by sewer and industrial waste from the city. We have identified and planned a waste management system. I assure you that in the next five years, we will clean up the river Yamuna. I will be the first one to take a dip in the river. I hope we will hold a town hall session on the banks of river Yamuna," said CM Kejriwal.

Speaking on revamping the government schools in the national capital, CM Arvind Kejriwal said, "We have improved the school infrastructure, increased the budget of the education and motivated the teachers and the principals by sending them on training tours outside India to improve their performance. In 2019, students of the private schools fared a 93% passing percentage, and government schools fared a 96.2% passing percentage. You can see the difference in the results."