Hindustan Times, New Delhi :
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the six other ministers in the newly-formed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government took charge of their offices on Monday. To start with, Kejriwal, in his third stint as chief minister, is aiming to roll out the free bus ride for students and doorstep delivery of ration schemes within the first three-four months.
Hindustan Times takes a look at the top five projects which the Delhi government is kicking-off its term with:
Deshbhakti curriculum: The first priority of the AAP government in education sector will be to introduce the patriotism curriculum in all government schools. Announcing the move on the eve of Independence Day in 2019, Kejriwal said that the curriculum would help build “a class of patriotic citizens”. It was also included in the AAP’s manifesto for the assembly elections. Speaking to HT, Manish Sisodia, who is going to be the deputy chief minister of Delhi and is likely to retain the education portfolio, said that the government is aiming to introduce this curriculum in its schools from the session which starts from April 1.
Ration delivery: Kejriwal’s flagship project, the doorstep delivery of ration, which aims to offer free home delivery of essential supplies to ration-card holders, is going to be the other project which the government is planning to roll out in its first few months. Officials associated with the project said that the file, which once was the cause of a major flashpoint between the Lieutenant Governor, the bureaucracy and the Delhi government, has now received “all the necessary clearances”.Source apportionment of air pollution: The Delhi government in collaboration with Washington University will start giving out real-time data identifying area-wise sources of air pollution in the city from April. “We have base level data for almost a year now. The comparison with the previous year’s pollution source data will begin from April. The machines have been set up at our air quality monitoring centre near India Gate. Once it starts, details of air pollution and its sources will be provided in an interval of every four hours which will help agencies to take area-specific pollution control initiatives,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
Free bus rides for students: The AAP’s promise to extend its free bus ride scheme to students, mentioned in Kejriwal’s 10-point guarantee card ahead of the assembly elections, is likely to be executed within three months of the government assuming office. The AAP government offers free rides to women in all state-run buses since October. The scheme will have to be tabled in the Cabinet and then will have to be approved in the Board of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). Officials said this procedure should not take more than three months. Decongesting Delhi: As Kejriwal in his swearing-in ceremony on Sunday talked about greater cooperation with the Central government, the AAP government is looking to collaborate with the Delhi police smoothening major traffic bottlenecks in the city.
The government is likely to revise speed limits of all roads across Delhi and it will also kick-start a project to re-design roads with location-specific solutions with the held of experts.
While in most projects and schemes, the Kejriwal government will require little intervention from the Lieutenant Governor or the central government, a few others such as developing a riverfront along the Yamuna and increasing the number of mohalla clinics and reducing vehicular traffic in the city will need the cooperation of the Centre.
Against its target of setting up 1000 mohalla clinics, the AAP government in its last tenure was able to build only over 400 of them because of unavailability of land, most of which is under the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) that is controlled by the Central government.
