Delhi polls: Arvind Kejriwal woos rural voters with special status, funds

NEW DELHI: Delhi will not progress until its rural areas develop, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal today said as he promised to give special status to villagers and set up ' Gram Vikas Fund' on the lines of MPLAD funds if his party comes to power in the upcoming Assembly elections.

The former Delhi chief minister promised to provide piped water to all villages, besides upgrading infrastructure of villages without hurting the essence of rural Delhi.

"We will grant special status to villagers and will setup village level fund (Gram Vikas Fund), similar to those of MPs and MLAs'. This will help villagers to develop their own villages. We will scrap sections Sections 33 and 81 (of Delhi Land Reform Act) and withdraw cases registered under Section 81.

"We will also review the limits of Lal Dora after consultation with villagers," Kejriwal said, adding that development of Delhi "is not possible without development of its villages."

He was addressing the fourth edition of 'Delhi Dialogue' at Ghuman Hera, a village on Delhi-Haryana border.

The former Delhi CM, however, faced some protests during a rally at Bawana, where a group of protesters, believed to be from a right-wing outfit, demanded ban on cow slaughter and alleged that Kejriwal was not secular.

Speaking at the rally in Ghuman Hera, he said having the same party at the Centre and in the state would mean that the Chief Minister here would act as the "puppet" of the central government.

"The BJP looks after the rural part of Delhi as its vote bank. BJP people snatch away land and then forget about the farmers... They are also bringing changes in the land acquisition act. This enables them to give farmers' land to the industrialist who have funded their election campaign," Kejriwal alleged.

In the last Assembly election, AAP did not fare well in rural and outer Delhi segments.