Kejriwal hails his govt’s achievements in Delhi House

The chief minister said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government has waived off the loans worth ₹1,100,000 crore for their “friends”

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, while discussing lieutenant governor VK Saxena’s annual address on Monday, spoke about the achievements of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi governance model and said that around ₹11.5 lakh crore investment would be needed to completely revamp the healthcare facilities, provide good education and free power of up to 200 units to everyone in the country by replicating the Delhi model.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the state legislative assembly on Monday. (ANI)

The chief minister said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government has waived off the loans worth ₹1,100,000 crore for their “friends” instead of fulfilling the duty towards 1.4 billion people. He also alleged an increased privatisation of schools and hospitals.

Kejriwal added that the initiatives taken in the Delhi model’s education, health and electricity sectors can be replicated in the entire country. “We have revamped the education sector and more than 400,000 children have moved from private schools to government schools... At a time when thousands of government schools are being closed in places like Gujarat and Assam, the Delhi model brings hope. The population is rising and more schools should have been opened but every state is witnessing the closure of government schools and children are being forced to go to private schools. This is a forced privatisation imposed on poor people,” he added.

Kejriwal said that according to his calculations, the 1 million government schools with 17 million children all over the country can be revamped using ₹500,000 crore. “For the central government, ₹500,000 crore is nothing. This can be done in phases and state governments can bear half the expenses. In five years, all kids in this country can get a good education,” he added.

The chief minister said the LG and the Opposition BJP were stopping the functioning of Delhi government hospitals and critiqued the Ayushman Bharat scheme. “BJP and LG did not leave any stone unturned to disrupt the operations of the hospitals. Medicines, and salary payments were stopped, data entry operators were removed and other hurdles were created. We are fighting to keep these schemes running,” he added.

A day after Saxena had asked him to implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme in Delhi, Kejriwal called the scheme the “biggest scam and biggest scandal.” Saxena recalled all the files related to the scheme by invoking transaction of business rules, the LG secretariat officials had said on Sunday.

Kejriwal said that the scheme provides ₹5 lakh insurance for bigger ailments in which people have to get admitted to hospitals. “If there are no hospitals and good facilities, what will the family do with these cards? This is also privatisation at a time when government hospitals are being closed,” he added. The scheme is for those who have a family income of less than ₹2.5 lakh.

“The minimum wage in Delhi is around ₹20,000. Delhi model has every facility being provided free of cost and why should a ₹5 lakh limit be put,” he added.

The chief minister added that Delhi gets 24-hour power supply to the, where 200 units are free. “India has an installed capacity of 400,000 MW power capacity and our peak demand is 200,000 MW but the government is still not able to get rid of power cuts. In Punjab, the government has purchased a private power plant... we need just ₹1,500,000 crore to give free 200 units of electricity to everyone in the country,” he added.

Meanwhile, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that Kejriwal’s health, and free power models was a “model of scams”.

“Through last nine years, we have shown that Mohalla clinics are sham, spurious medicines have been distributed in government hospitals, there has been scam path labs in government hospitals, construction of school classrooms too has been a scam. In free power too, we have seen allegations of kick back to ruling party from private discoms... We are not causing any disruption in functioning of the Delhi government but we will not allow corruption go unchecked,” said Kapoor.