NEW DELHI: In a major shift from its earlier stand, due to which the previous Aam Aadmi Party-led government had to resign in 2014, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the Swaraj and Jan Lokpal bills first need to be cleared by the Centre before being tabled in Delhi assembly.

In February 2014, the state government had refused to send the bills to the Centre, prompting both Congress and BJP to declare the procedure of tabling it in the assembly illegal. In a Google Hangout addressed by Kejriwal on Sunday, he said that both would be first sent to the Centre this time.

In his 30 minute-long interaction, Kejriwal made repeated references to the Centre, saying that it was trying to derail the state's anti-corruption branch and was forcing Delhi Police to make things difficult for the government.

"The BJP-led Centre is trying very hard to ruin our ACB. It is not allowing us to take action against police. Why? Our MLAs passed a resolution declaring the Centre's ruling that we cannot prosecute police as unconstitutional. Meanwhile, both BJP and Congress would like our government to fail. They are hand in glove and benefit whenever either of them is in power. But with the AAP government, they are not getting any benefits," said Kejriwal.

The chief minister added that on May 24 the Aam Aadmi Party government will complete 100 days in power, while on May 26 the Modi government at the Centre will complete a year. "There should be a comparison to see how each of us have performed. It will be quite interesting," he said.

Kejriwal, who seems to have embarked on a warpath with the media, said that while the government had no plans of opening its own media house, his government would support any initiative to start a new channel or newspaper "that will show unbiased, real news".

Talking about the work his government has done in the past few weeks, the chief minister said that all jhuggis and unauthorized construction that had taken place after February 14, 2015 would have no protection. For all those that came up before that the government would provide pucca homes.

The government is also planning to amend the Delhi Education Act in order to give it powers to take action against private schools the city if they increase fees without any reason.

Kejriwal said that he has been keeping an eye on all his MLAs and while most of them were performing up to standard, there were some whose work was lax and he was speaking to them at regular intervals.

In another veiled attack on the media, Kejriwal said that irrespective of what the was being shown, surveys being carried out by AAP in the capital every 15-odd days showed that the new government was extremely popular.

"Compare this with the Centre where Modi's popularity has been going down while ours has only increased. Delhi government has ensured that there is sufficient water and power for the upcoming summer months and there should be no major problem this year," he said.

