Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has promised to make Delhi "the most progressive national capital in the world" on the eve of the completion of the AAP government's seventh anniversary in power in the city on Tuesday.
Kejriwal said the government has taken numerous significant steps towards the development of Delhi by following in the footsteps of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, stated a Delhi government statement.
The AAP national convener took oath as the chief minister of Delhi for the third time at the Ramlila Maidan here on February 16 last year after a massive victory of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the assembly polls. The AAP won 62 of the 70 seats in 2020.
In the 2013 polls, the AAP had emerged as the second-largest party in the house and formed its first government in the national capital after taking outside support from the Congress. However, the government fell months later and the AAP returned to power in February 2015 by winning a whopping majority of 67 of 70 seats.
"After 75 years of independence, Babasaheb's dream of providing equal and qualitative education to all children in the country is being realised in Delhi. Today, every child in Delhi receives world-class education for free. The reverberation of the educational revolution is reaching the country and beyond," Kejriwal said.
Noting that along with education, electricity, water, and healthcare are being provided free to all Delhi residents, he said, "By abolishing caste and religious distinctions, the Delhi government is allowing everyone to progress".
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"Delhi’s education system, healthcare, electricity and water supply are being praised all over the world. We will make Delhi the most progressive capital in world," the chief minister said.
Listing out the changes made in the education system, he said government schools have been provided with world-class infrastructure and over 20,000 new classrooms while teachers have been trained at reputable institutions in the country and abroad.
Parent participation has been ensured by strengthening school management committees, he added.
“Happiness and mindfulness classes in our schools help to relieve children's stress. To promote entrepreneurship, we began the ‘Business Blasters’ programme with entrepreneurship courses and the promotion of Startups,” he said.
“To provide world-class education to children, the Delhi Board School Education was formed, and it collaborated with the International Baccalaureate. Along with this, Deshbhakti Curriculum was started to inculcate the feeling of patriotism in the children," he added.
Sharing other achievements of the government, he said the government currently spends 16 per cent of its budget on health, compared to an average of five per cent in the rest of the country. The government is in the process of constructing seven new hospitals with a total capacity of 6,836 beds, he said.
"By doing so, Delhi's bed capacity will be increased by 20,836 by 2025. In the coming days, Delhi will become the country's only state with a cloud-based health management system," he said. Another key thrust area of the government is cleaning up the Yamuna river by 2025.
“We have set a goal of cleaning up the Yamuna by 2025, and we intend to meet it. A six-step action plan has been developed to clean up the Yamuna," he said. In its budget for 2021-22, the AAP government had committed to building a Delhi by 2047 that is: Equitable with per capita income of Delhi being equal to Singapore and every person, rich or poor, having a high standard of living.
The budget had also envisioned that Delhi shall bid for hosting the 2048 Olympic games. "Achieving this vision is not possible by any single stakeholder and requires deep, sustained collaboration between the government, private sector and civil society,” Kejriwal said. “The ongoing Covid pandemic has further shown the true potential of multi-stakeholder collaborations and how the biggest of challenges can be addressed if all stakeholders of the city come together,” he added.
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