Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who has been in power for almost 10 years, has been credited with taking Delhi from a doom city to a boom city. But her detractors say she has made the city a huge construction site, as it gears up for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. How do you see your two tenures? The nine and a half years have been a roller coaster ride. We are always acting or reacting to situations, swinging between excitement, satisfaction and frustration. Frustrated? Why? While municipal corporations are normally under the state government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is under the ministry of home affairs and the urban development ministry. The police are under the lieutenant governor of Delhi. If we need land for a hospital or a school, we have to ask the Delhi Development Authority for a plot. It is a problem of multiplicity of authorities. Is the Delhi government toothless? If you think of land, law and order and planning, we are toothless. We manage because nobody would like to work against Delhi's development. There is the Balakrishnan report recommending that the MCD be under the state government, and the Ved Prakash Committee report saying Delhi government must have land and the power to plan, because it is an elected government and responsible to the people. But both are gathering dust. Neither the NDA government nor the UPA government has done anything to act on these reports. And not everyone in the city knows how ill equipped we are. Our powers are very constricted. Did you pay a political price for it? One and a half years ago, when the demolitions were happening in Delhi, the MCD and DDA were involved. Though we weren't in the picture, we were held responsible. We had to approach the Centre and the court. The MCD moved away from the demolitions. Cases came up in courts, which wanted the plans. So we had to chase the DDA and MCD for it. We were crushed between so many agencies. Neither the Governor nor the Centre is accountable to the people here. Ninety seven per cent of Delhi is under the MCD and Lutyens' Delhi is under the New Delhi Municipal Corporation, neither of which is under the Delhi government! And that has affected your achievements. Wherever we can act, we've achieved a lot. When we started implementing CNG vehicles, there was resistance from everyone. CNG was in short supply and the vehicle owners' lobby did not want to convert. But now everyone knows the positive impact of these vehicles. The metro rail project, which was lying in a file somewhere, was taken off the government shelves. Now the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has total independence. We now have 120 km of metro network, and by 2010, it will be everywhere in Delhi. In 10 years, the green cover of the city has gone up from 4 per cent to 19 per cent. I would like to take that up to 25 per cent. The city was static when I assumed office. Now there are many new hospitals, colleges, a new university, flyovers and foot over-bridges, and people know it. The pass percentage of students in government schools is higher compared to public and private schools. We were also the second in the country to have the Right To Information Act. But people talk of power shortages and dry taps. People have forgotten the eight-to-nine-hour-long power cuts and complain when there is power failure for an hour. People's expectations have become very high, and there is a lot of scrutiny. That indicates development and their expectations keep the government on its toes. Three years ago, newspapers carried photographs of water tankers with hundreds of buckets, pots and pans beside them. Now you don't see that. By 2010, we will have 6,000 MW of additional power and 890 million gallons of water a day. How about involving Delhi residents in governance as stakeholders? Because we don't have the MCD, DDA and police under us, we have made people our partners in governance. Starting with two residents' welfare associations, we now have 2,100 RWAs as partners under the Bhagidari movement. Once a month we have a video conference with them where their grievances are discussed and solved immediately. The Bhagidari model has been recognised all over, and has won awards. The BJP alleges that legalising 1,400 unauthorised colonies is an eyewash. It is only the BJP that is trying to make a controversy of this move. Courts have allowed us to work in the colonies. So we are providing them water, electricity and other civic amenities. When courts asked us for maps, we approached the RWAs. The maps have gone to the MCD for scrutiny. We are aware that they may delay or deny the process [The BJP has a majority in the MCD], so we had a survey done by Guru Gobind Singh of IP University, which gave us aerial contour pictures of the colonies. With the permission of the Centre and the DDA, we have issued colony residents with provisional certificates. How do you feel, with elections round the corner? I look forward to the elections, and leave it to the people. They know that this government has worked honestly and transparently. We've built so much of infrastructure, we've reached out to people through the Ladli scheme. The water and power rates here are the lowest in the country. There has been an enormous jump in technical education and that has made people employable. From four colleges affiliated to the GGIP University, today we have 87. There is also the new Ambedkar University. Is anyone in the Congress eyeing your seat? The Congress is like a large family. There are bickerings, but when it comes to the crunch, winnability and good image of MLAs are considered. Are you worried of anti-incumbency? Even last time, I was told I'd be out because of anti-incumbency. It is an emotion, a feeling that you want a change blindly. But people do look at track record. People want continuity of the development initiatives and they want a stable government. So we are not afraid of anti-incumbency. We have been a responsive government in Delhi. When the price of LPG shot up by Rs 50 a cylinder, the government absorbed Rs 40. Our bus and taxi fares are the lowest in the country, the cost of goods used by the aam admi has not gone up much, and we ensure that subsidised rations reach the poor. Why should someone change a government that's done well? What are your election promises? By the time the Commonwealth Games happen, we will have a world^ class city.