‘The doors of chief minister’s office are now open for everyone’: Delhi CM Rekha Gupta | HT interview

Rekha Gupta spoke to HT about priorities of her government, key promises made by BJP in the run-up to the elections, and working with the city-state’s LG.

Soon after taking oath at a grand function at the Ramlila Maidan as the ninth chief minister of Delhi and the fourth woman to hold the top job, Rekha Gupta spoke to HT at her office in the Delhi Secretariat about the priorities of her government, the key promises made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run-up to the elections, and working with the city-state’s lieutenant governor (LG). Edited excerpts of an interview:

Rekha Gupta at the CM Office in New Delhi on Thursday. (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

You have just taken oath as the new chief minister of Delhi. What is your vision?

Today, I have taken charge as the chief minister. We will do sustained work to complete our vision of seeing a “Viksit Delhi”. Not a single day will be wasted. You may not have stepped inside this room (the chief minister’s office at Delhi secretariat) before this, but now the doors of the CM’s office are open for everyone.

During the recently concluded assembly elections, the BJP promised it would pay a monthly allowance of ₹2,500 to all women of Delhi after it comes to power. How do you plan to implement this?

The BJP government will take this ( ₹2,500 monthly allowances to women) on priority. In the first meeting of the council of ministers, the promise of the BJP to provide ₹2,500 monthly allowances to women will be discussed. Together with the cabinet colleagues, the finer details of this will be worked out. Multiple aspects of this will be finalised such as requirement details. We will also sit together with the officers for this and finalise it.

As chief minister, what are your long- and short-term priorities for the new Delhi government?

All the commitments that we have made are our goals. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a vision of making Delhi a developed city. Under this plan, the cleaning of the Yamuna, the maintenance of Delhi’s roads and sanitation are our priority projects, and we will do all these things. The implementation of Ayushman Bharat (the Centre’s flagship health care scheme) is our guarantee, just as eliminating corruption is our guarantee. The people of Delhi deserve these things. Together with the people of Delhi, we will do all these things. We will fulfil the commitments we have made.

Delhi has witnessed constant confrontation between the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and lieutenant governor VK Saxena. Now that the BJP is running the central government as well as the Delhi government, will it speed up governance in the national capital?As two governments with the same vision, we will work together, and this work will naturally pick up momentum now. Our vision is to make Delhi a “Viksit Delhi”, and the LG is also a supporter of the idea of “Viksit Delhi”. Towards this, we will work together.

Is your government planning to table the reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) pertaining to the AAP government in the Delhi assembly?

We will take a decision about it in the meeting of the Delhi cabinet. Eliminating corruption is definitely among our top priorities.