New Delhi: Raising the campaign pitch ahead of the February 8 assembly polls, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister (CM) Manish Sisodia on Wednesday slammed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was not what the country needed, and the saffron party should focus on ways to improve the quality of education and stepping up employment rates.
“BJP should not divide people by bringing in controversial legislations such as Citizenship Amendment Act. They should rather devise strategies to improve education and employment scenario in the states ruled by them. In Delhi, people are happy with the performance of our government and that should be a lesson for BJP,” Sisodia told Gulf News.
The Deputy CM said he was satisfied with the performance of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the last five years but needed more time to complete pending tasks.
“We have tried our best to give maximum benefits to the people of Delhi, to make their lives not only liveable, but also prosperous. We have made water and electricity free, improved the education and health care system. But we need more time. The work pending for 70 years cannot be completed in just five years,” he emphasised.
I challenge BJP to compare the work they have done in the municipal schools here or the education sector or any other sector in any of the states ruled by them with that of the AAP government in Delhi.
Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said most of the time of his five-year tenure was used to improve basic infrastructure and quality of education in private and government schools of Delhi.
The Education Minister attacked Congress and BJP over private schools turning into “profitmaking businesses” in the states ruled by them.
“It is a pity that schools run under the regime of Congress and BJP have turned into profitmaking ventures. In Delhi, the families of politicians earlier ran private schools. In those areas, the government schools were closed down for the benefit of the private schools. But we did not allow private schools to be just profitmaking businesses in the national capital,” Sisodia said.
He informed that in 2017-18 and 2018-19, no school was allowed to increase the fee.
“As many as 364 private schools in Delhi are built on government land. The private schools were given land either for Rupee one or at highly subsidised rates during the 1970s and 1980s. As per the agreement between the schools and the government, the schools can only increase the fee after taking permission from the government. But till 2015, nobody used this clause,” Sisodia lamented.
Reacting to BJP’s latest slogan ‘Desh badla hai. Ab Dilli badlenge’ (we changed the country, now we will change Delhi), the Deputy CM challenged the saffron party to compare the work done by AAP government in Delhi with that of the performance of BJP-ruled states.
“I challenge BJP to compare the work they have done in the municipal schools here or the education sector or any other sector in any of the states ruled by them with that of the AAP government in Delhi,” he said.
Sisodia stated that his government, if re-elected, will focus on higher education with a goal to increase student intake capacity of the universities.
“Delhi needs to have more intake capacity in higher education as students from outside the city also come here. We have passed two Bills in the last session of Delhi legislative assembly for creation of two big universities in Delhi. We are aiming to increase the intake of universities by about one lakh students in the next few years,” he said.
Sisodia also accused BJP of trying to stop AAP convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal from filing his nomination. Kejriwal waited for more than six hours at an election office on Tuesday before he could finally file his papers.
“BJP sent 45 candidates to file their nominations yesterday. They were all trying to block Arvind Kejriwal. The Election Commission also intentionally spent 30 minutes to one hour on those who did not have all the papers — all so that Kejriwal could be stopped from filing his nomination,” Sisodia said.
He also accused BJP of cheating people on the issue of regulating unauthorised colonies.
“The leaders of BJP are giving fake property registries to the people of Delhi. People are not even applying for the process. This shows that the BJP leaders are lying on the matter of illegal colonies. They are cheating people by telling them that they have regulated unauthorised colonies,” he said.
In 2015 election, AAP had won 67 out of a total of 70 assembly seats. BJP won the remaining three and Congress drew a blank.
