lieutenant-Governor, Anil Baijal underlined the work done by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government, majorly in the health and education sector at the Delhi Assemby on Monday. In his 30-minute-long speech, he addressed the Delhi Assembly for the first time, at the beginning of the five-day Budget session.
Since it came to power, the Arvind Kejriwal Government is going to present its third Budget on March 8. Baijal, who assumed office in December last year has managed to maintain peace with the AAP Government.
During his speech, the lieutenant Governor stuck to the script as he underlined the Government’s measures like slashing power tariff by half and making a certain quantum of water supply free to improve the living standard of city residents. He said the Delhi Government’s 50 per cent subsidy on monthly power consumption of up to 400 units would continue.
“Five new schools have been opened, while five others have been upgraded. Construction of 20 new schools and 8,000 classrooms are underway,” he said. “For inclusive development, my Government had identified education as one of the key sectors. As a result of the Government’s focused attention for improving the quality of education, students of Delhi have done exceedingly well. At 12th level, Government Schools recorded a pass percentage of 89.25% while 95.81% pass percentage was achieved at 10th level during academic session 2015-16.”
In the area of health, Baijal referred to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s praise for ‘mohalla clinics’ (neighbourhood clinics), and said 1,000 such facilities will come up in the next six months.
He added that around 122 polyclinics, also part of AAP’s three-tier health care reforms, will be built in the next one year.
Baijal said the phase III of Delhi Metro, under which two corridors are being built parallel to the arterial Ring Road, will be launched by June, while the Phase IV which has recently been cleared will come up by 2021.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other top ministers of the Cabinet, including Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, as well as leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta were present during the House proceedings.
leader of opposition, Vijender Gupta said that Kejriwal Government has “failed” to present its vision for Delhi’s future through the address of Baijal. He said that it is beyond understanding how the Government will make Delhi like london and Paris in one year if it has “no policy frame work for tomorrow”.