Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday criticised the Union government for “reducing” the Central education budget.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday criticised the Union government for “reducing” the Central education budget. “Don’t mess around with the youth and education,” he said in his interactive programme Talk to AK.
“When the BJP government came to power, it reduced the education budget by 25 per cent, bringing it down from Rs 82,000 crore to Rs 68,000 crore. We, on the other hand, doubled it. This year they have marginally increased the education budget by 5 per cent whereas we doubled it from Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore,” he said.
“There were either no toilets in government schools or they were in a very bad shape. We have repaired the toilets in almost all the 1,100 schools which come under the Delhi government,” the CM said.
Stating that the health sector is another key priority of his government, he said, “We’ve redesigned the health sector in Delhi after consultations with experts. All the tests and medicines are available for free here. It requires crores to set up government dispensaries, we spent just Rs 20 lakh on mohalla clinics. This was widely covered by the American media.”
Mr Kejriwal promised to set up 1,000 mohalla clinics in Delhi by December. He said that at the inter-state council meeting he has urged the Prime Minister to make all tests free in government hospitals.
For a good half of his interactive session, Mr Kejriwal focused on the Delhi government’s emphasis on education, health, power and water. He claimed that the city’s power rates were among the “lowest in the country”.
“If a family in Delhi consumes 400 units, the cost would be Rs 1,370. The same would be over Rs 2,500 in Gujarat, Rs 4,300 in Mumbai, Rs 2,927 in Kolkata and Rs 2,690 in Punjab,” Mr Kejriwal said.
Responding to a query on his government’s promise of free wi-fi, the CM said plans were afoot to lay optical cables in all of Delhi. He also said that by 2017 all households will have portable water and there would not be any need to use RO purification.
