Ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections next month, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will attack the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led Delhi government on two areas considered the state government’s strength — education and health, Union minister Hardeep Puri said on Friday.
Earlier this week, Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia challenged the BJP?to compare its record in school education in states ruled by it with AAP’s record in Delhi.
He also added that the Delhi government-run schools are managed much better than those run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). All three MCDs (North, South, East) are run by the BJP.
Puri said that the Delhi government has “dealt a crushing blow to the morale of the teachers” in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools by not providing the organisation with the funds to pay the arrears of the 7th central pay commission to the teachers.
The Delhi and central governments have been sparring for several years on the funding of the MCDs.
The AAP government wants the Centre to directly fund the MCDs. The Centre wants the state government to fund them out of its share of central funds.
“The expenditure that MCDs have to incur which has not been reimbursed on education comes to 70%: ~3,914 crore is owed to north MCD, ~569 crore to East MCD and ~223 crore to South MCD,” Puri said.
The MCD schools are running with only 57% of their sanctioned strength of teachers, he added.
“What is even more alarming is that the state government’s policies have forced several private schools to close down. I am subjecting his claims to tough scrutiny,” Puri said.
Puri also alleged that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has not implemented central schemes such as the Ayushman Bharat and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), depriving the city-state’s residents of valuable benefits.
