Check on private school fee

जब तक दिल्ली में ईमानदार सरकार है, अभिभावकों को चिंता करने की जरूरत नहीं है। दिल्ली के किसी भी प्राइवेट स्कूल को फी… https://t.co/ppG2RpeCRY — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) 1579409028000

Upgrading government schools

Free electricity and water

Mohalla clinics

Free DTC bus ride

Soft Hindutva

Image makeover

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has scored a hatrick in the Delhi assembly election and is all set to form the government for the third consecutive term in the national capital.AAP breached the high octane campaign launched by BJP that was led by home minister Amit Shah who raked up national issues and the protests against Citizenship Amendment Act, making it a “Shaheen Bagh versus all” contest.Kejriwal, in contrast, confined his campaign to the achievements of the AAP government in the last five years. He made the BJP’s frontal attack on him as Delhi voters versus BJP.Finally, AAP emerged victorious, almost repeating its 2015 performance. These are the seven reasons behind Kejriwal’s victory:The Arvind Kejriwal government’s decisions in the education sector have perhaps played the most important role in AAP’s victory.With many families in the national capital having school-going children, the Kejriwal government’s moves touched their lives in one way or the other.In a major public-friendly decision, the AAP government did not allow the 200-odd private unaided schools to arbitrarily hike fees in the last five years.The schools even moved the Delhi high court against the government’s decision. The single judge quashed the government’s circular in March last year. The government challenged the order. In a major relief to the parents, the division bench put a stay on the interim fee hike.While campaigning for the Delhi assembly election, Kejriwal on January 19 said his government would continue to check the school fee like they did in the last five years.In a tweet posted in Hindi, he said, “As long as there is an honest government in Delhi, the parents need not to worry about school fees. No private school in Delhi will be allowed to hike fees arbitrarily. Like the last five years, we will continue to check the fees."The Kejriwal government even forced schools to roll back fees and return the excess amount to the parents if it found irregularities in fee hike.The AAP govt in Delhi brought unprecedented changes in government schools - right from infrastructure to teachers’ training to paying more attention to interaction with parents. No wonder Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the portfolio of education minister, have major claims to make.Kejriwal said, “We have ensured that our government schools are at least as good if not better than the private schools. About 25 per cent of Delhi's annual budget has been invested in education in the past three-and-a-half years… The budget for the sector is three times more than what it was when we came to power. With these funds, our schools today have world class infrastructure with SMART classes, swimming pools, classroom libraries, modern desks and better laboratories.”Kejriwal also claimed that several parents had shifted their children from private schools to the government schools. The teachers and school leaders were given opportunities to learn from some of the most prestigious universities across the world, including University of Cambridge, University of Harvard and NIE Singapore, among others.Sisodia, meanwhile said Delhi's government schools had outperformed private schools in the CBSE 12 standard examinations.In its manifesto, AAP claims to have added 20,000 new classrooms in over 200 government schools in Delhi. All previous governments in the national capital had managed to build 17,000 classrooms in all these years.An interesting aspect of the education reforms is the strict implementation of PTM (parents-teacher meeting). Earlier, PTM was only on paper. However, the Kejriwal government implemented it in 2016, giving a sense of pride and satisfaction to the parents who for the first time started getting feedback on their children’s development from teachers.The AAP government gave subsidised electricity to Delhi residents six months ago. On August 1 last year, Kejriwal announced 100 per cent subsidy to those who consume up to 200 units of electricity. Consumers of 201-400 units of electricity started receiving approximately 50 per cent subsidy."People used to pay Rs 622 for 200 units of electricity till yesterday, now it's free. For 250 units they used to pay Rs 800, now they'll pay Rs 252. For 300 units, they used to pay Rs 971, now they'll pay Rs 526. For 400 units, they used to pay Rs 1320, now they'll pay Rs 1075," he added.AAP also fulfilled its promise of supplying free water upto 20,000 litres per household per month. In December 2017, the Delhi Jal Board hiked water charges for families consuming more than 20,000 liters of water per month. These families pay Rs 28 per litre extra every month or 85 paise per day. However, for families consuming 20,000 litres, water was kept free of cost.To offer cheap and quality health facilities to the people, the Kejriwal government had promised to put in place a network of 1,000 mohalla clinics under the neighbourhood health facility scheme. However, it could open only 301 such clinics.The clinics offer free basic medical care services for common illnesses like fever, diarrhoea, skin problems, respiratory problems, first aid for injuries and burns, dressing of minor wounds and referral services.While dispensing free medicines and check-ups, it also allows 212 tests by the empanelled laboratories.Mohalla clinics earned praise globally. World leaders such as former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and former WHO director general Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland hailed the project.The Kejriwal government extended free rides in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses from October 29 - more than three months before the assembly election. The bus conductors distribute Rs 10 pink tickets to each woman passenger, which allows them to travel for free.Besides these innovative experiments and subsidies, the Kejriwal government also peddled soft Hindutva in order to wean away a chunk of BJP’s voters.Just a day before voting for the 2015 Delhi assembly election, Jama Masjid Iman Syed Ahmed Bukhari appealed to Muslims to vote for AAP. However, Kejriwal’s party declined the offer saying it was against any type of caste and communal politics.However, Kejriwal has tried to woo people on religious lines.For instance, he has been regularly seen attending iftar events and sporting a skull cap.Further, on July 12, Arvind Kejriwal flagged off the first train under the Mukhyamantri Teerth Yatra (Chief Minister’s Pilgrimage) scheme. Under the scheme, trains ferry senior citizens to five different routes of religious significance for free. The government bears the entire expenditure, including travel, accommodation, meals and miscellaneous arrangements.The scheme covers five routes - Delhi-Mathura-Vrindavan-Agra-Fatehpur Sikri-Delhi, Delhi-Haridwar-Rishikesh-Neelkanth-Delhi, Delhi-Ajmer-Pushkar-Delhi, Delhi-Amritsar-Bagha Border-Anandpur Sahib-Delhi and Delhi-Vaishno Devi-Jammu-Delhi.Besides this, Arvind Kejriwal presented himself as a devotee of Lord Hanuman just a few days before the February 8 assembly election. He sang the Hanuman Chalisa and said it gives him peace of mind.A day before voting, Kejriwal visited Hanuman Temple in Delhi along with his family members and offered prayers. On the voting day, he was seen sporting a tilak on his forehead.Kejriwal has also never extended explicit support to the Shaheen Bagh protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).Arvind Kejriwal launched a major image makeover in the last couple of years.Earlier, he was in constant confrontation mode with the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over one issue or another, especially full statehood to Delhi.He even called Modi “psychopath and coward” and had expressed apprehension that Modi and Shah would get him killed.He strongly opposed the Centre’s actions such as demonetisation. He had also demanded proof of the Indian Army’s surgical strikes in Pak-occupied Kashmir.For about three years, Arvind Kejriwal kept complaining that Modi was not allowing him to work.However, over the last few months, Kejriwal changed tack. The aggression against Modi and Shah became a matter of the past.Unlike his strong response to issues such as demonetisation and surgical strikes, Kejriwal did not take a strong stand against CAA and NPR. He did not openly support the Shaheen Bagh protesters, neither did he visit the protest site.Kejriwal also sought to strike an emotional chord with the voters when BJP MP Parvesh Verma called him a terrorist. He narrated how his parents were hurt by that allegation and asked voters to decide if he was their eldest son or a terrorist.He also sought to garner sympathy by discussing his health problems, saying he takes insulin four times a day as he suffers from acute diabetes. However, he undertook 15 days’ hunger strike twice for the country.