Corruption is a challenge even today

Corruption is there in entire India but too much corruption is going on in Uttar Pradesh. We have to keep a control on it and that money should be used properly

After so many years you are the first women to become the mayor of Lucknow. What do you think is the reason that no woman was ever elected to the post earlier?
Women gets very less opportunity and I think if they get more opportunities they can prove themselves better. When I was a candidate for elections press used to ask me being a woman what are you going to do for our state? I used to tell them that how women keeps their home clean and well maintained even if it’s a small or big house, the way they keep it so beautiful, I will also keep my state beautiful, will keep it safe.

What are your priorities? One among them is to keep the state clean which is also a part of government’s Swachh Baharat Abhiyan. Other than this there are so many issues in Lucknow which can be seen when we visit the city and local bodies’ needs to address it. What challenges do you foresee?
Biggest challenge is of cleanliness. Garbage was not collected from door to door before. I have started it now.Enchrochmnet is too much there, it’s an issue, water is an issue, water logging is a problem, so many challenges are there, need to work on all of them.
As a women mayor, you are in politics, you won the elections. There is a male dominance. Now days a lot is happening to bring it down but so many challenges are still there. According to you what steps should be taken to remove it completely?
Whenever women got opportunities they have proved themselves better. Today from the earth to sky women have excelled in every opportunities they got I am a women and I want to do something better, something new.

OK! Lets talk about the local bodies, they have very important role, whether it’s the government Policy’s or to percolate the money till the ground level or benefits given to the people so what do think about the role of local bodies in it?
They have a very important role. If money is coming then the money should be used properly and for the purpose its coming it should be used for it only. Corruption is there in entire India but too much corruption is going on in Uttar Pradesh. We have to keep a control on it and that money should be used properly.

Corruption is a big issue.
It is a big issue and it’s still there. It’s been only four months since I became a mayor. It’s a big state and we have 110 wards in it. There were so many staffs in wards but very few used to show up and used to get fully paid. They were not getting salary for three months, from five months they were not getting their pensions because the work was not done as much they were taking as their salary so in order to bring them on the correct path we started using biometric attendance.

Talking in broader terms about the sustainable development and its goal. Urbanization is happening we cannot stop it and because of it people are migrating from villages to cities which are broadening the issues more. You cannot stop them from coming so in order to achieve the sustainable goals what will be the challenges?
People from entire India come to Lucknow and we cannot prevent them from coming so we have to give them all the facilities and every one should get it equally. Water problem is increasing day by day because of the increase in the population even the issues with the roads are also there due to which encroachment is increasing and we need to work on it.