The Delhi Congress on Wednesday unveiled the party's third "blueprint" in which it stressed to improve the primary education and health in the Capital as part of its campaign for the April 23 civic polls.
A detailed roadmap was presented with provision to transfer all six big hospitals run by North Municipal Corporation to Delhi Government in order to save Rs652 crore every year.
The party also proposes a slew of measures to achieve its target to provide quality education and affordable health facilities to all. The main highlights of the draft are filling 6,500 teachers' vacancies in primary schools; to set up an empowered group consisting of experts to monitor school; upgradation of primary health clinics and to provide affordable medicines through fair price pharmacies.
The party's plan to release its roadmap for Delhi came after several unprecedented political developments, including Delhi Chief Minisrter Arvind Kejriwal's announcement to wave property tax, followed by war of words by both BJP and Congress.
This is the third draft plan unveiled within a month. The draft was released by former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid, P C Chacko and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Ajay Maken as the party is eyeing a comeback in the civic elections after severe setback in Assembly elections held in Goa, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Tharoor said the biggest problem for the education sector was the dropout ratio in MCD schools.
Tharoor said total number of students in municipal schools had dropped from around 8.69 lakh in 2013-14 to 8.18 lakh in 2015-16.
"The Congress would ensure bringing those children back into the fold and would also reduce the student-teacher ratio by filling vacancies of around 6500 teachers," he said.
Taking on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which recently announced to abolish house tax if it wins civic polls, Maken said, "We do not believe in politics of pointing fingers but in politics of finding solutions to the problems. Unlike the AAP and the BJP, who are finding excuses for not performing for the people of DelhiIJ"
In a series of unveiling blueprint to revive the overall condition of the city after winning MCD elections, the party had earlier also released a roadmap as a solution to ailing Corporation.
The first draft plan was released earlier this month by former Finance Minister P Chidamabaram and Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia to revive the financial condition of the three municipal corporations within two years if voted to power. The first draft blueprint also envisages Rs 2,000 crore annual fund for development of infrastructure-deficit areas, particularly the unauthorised colonies.
later second draft plan "Clean Delhi, Breathe Delhi" was unveiled on Sunday by former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Ajay Maken to make Delhi the "cleanest and most beautiful" city in the world.