Has Arvind Kejriwal Been Able To Keep His Promises To The People Of Delhi?

Overview

In 2015, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won with the majority number of seats. AAP is based on the principles of truth, swaraj and anti-corruption and made major promises in its election manifesto.

These included the assurance of the electricity bills of the Delhi people to be reduced by half, cleaning of river Yamuna, building 500 schools in Delhi, improving the quality of education of secondary and senior secondary schools, regulating private school fees, building twenty new universities, providing free wifi and installing around 10,000 CCTV cameras in different public places, assurance of 20,000 liters of water to every household for a month, promises to make more than 1000 Mohalla clinics and more than 125 polyclinics and etc. 

How Much Has Been Done?

Healthcare 

Aam Aadmi Party set up a three tiered system for providing free medicines, tests and life saving surgeries. Mohalla Clinics, Polyclinics and hospitals were set up. 

Mohalla clinics are primary health centers in Delhi. There were 450 Mohalla clinics and the Delhi government has planned to exceed this to thousand. Mohalla clinics were set for the purpose of providing essential medicines and  diagnostic tests for free. Mohalla Clinics are set up on rent or in porta cabins. 

Polyclinics were set up for providing specialised diagnosis and treatment for patients for free and for focusing on quality in patient care. Total 25 polyclinics were set up. 

The Delhi government hospitals provide medicines, tests and surgeries for free of cost. If a citizen of Delhi is waitlisted for a life threatening surgery for more than thirty days, then the hospital prefers to shift that patient to a private hospital and all the treatment will be paid by the Delhi government. 

In 2015-16, 9.5% of GDP was kept for healthcare and in 2019-20, 14% was allocated. Also, Rs 50 crore is kept for providing COVID vaccines to people for free in Delhi. 

The Lok Nayak Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality hospital and Dr. Hedgewar Arogya Sansthan these three government hospitals are providing haemodialysis service at a low price to the people of Delhi and free of charge for poor people through PPP dialysis project which was started in the year 2013. This was successful though the aim wasn’t reached but it’s expected that in coming years more such Mohalla clinics, polyclinics and hospitals will be put up.  

Education

In Delhi, education is based on a three tier model which includes primary schools, secondary schools and universities and other institutions at the tertiary level. Manish Sisodia holds the education portfolio and a large amount of money was spent for improving the infrastructure of Delhi’s government schools. Also there was special training given to the teachers.

In 2015-16, Rs 6,208 crore was allotted for the higher education sector. In 2016-17, it was increased to Rs 8642 crore. In 2017-18, Rs 9888 crore was spent. In 2018-19, Rs 11201 crore was spent and in 2019-20, Rs 15133 crore was spent in the education sector and a total 26% of GDP is spent in education.

In 2015, the condition of Delhi government schools was not good. So, more money was spent on the education sector. The Directorate of Education constructed 21 new school buildings which had all the modern facilities and 8000 classrooms.

Also, clean drinking water was provided , girls and boys separate washrooms were made, electricity was provided and 88.82% of schools had computer facilities. In 2017, Delhi government started a one of the kind teacher training exercise  across the city to the teachers who were teaching in Delhi government schools. The group based and conceptual learning concept was introduced in teacher training. 

In 2018, there were two hundred teachers who received training by world’s top educators- National Institute of Education and these teachers are known as mentor teachers. The trained teachers were given the task to regularly visit five to six schools to observe classroom exercises and to check proper learning. 

In 2016, a project named Chunauti was introduced, the purpose of the project being to check the student dropout rates and to improve the quality of education and to provide special focus on weakest students and motivate them for studying. It was reported that Chunati has brought improvement in pass percentage of IX and XI. 

Earlier pass percentage was 71% in 2017-18 and in 2018-19 it reached 80%. Also, according to the Praja Foundation Report class XII results have improved since the AAP government came into power. Delhi government has decided to provide free education to children who had lost their parents due to covid19. 

There was a lot of development in the education sector but still more to do . The enrollment rate in Delhi has fallen. 

According to the Praja Foundation report, State of Public(School)Education in Delhi, which was published in March 2019, stated that enrolment rate in Delhi has fallen 8% from 2012-14 to 2017-18 and it has fallen 4% for class 1st in the government schools in 2017-18. 

Another survey by Praja Foundation shows that 259705 students who got registered for class IX in Delhi government schools in 2014-15 from that 56%of students did not reach XII in 2017-18 because of very poor reservation in state run schools. 

Data on the state government site also indicates that 55% of students did not go to class X in the year 2016-17 and it probably indicates that there was a large ratio of students who failed in IX.  

In the year 2017-18, only 68.95% of students were able to pass the X class board and the pass % of central government schools was 97.03% the same year. 

The Praja Foundation report further stated that CCE (Comprehensive Evaluation) results in state government schools for grade VI,VII and VIII fell below grade C. This poor learning reflected in XI as students failed a lot. 

Also, out of 1029 schools only 301 schools across Delhi have science as a subject. 

Pollution

For reducing pollution in Delhi, around 33 lakh trees were planted. Odd even rule came into effect on November 4, and it was introduced to reduce pollution.

According to this rule, private vehicles with registration numbers ending with odd digit will be allowed on roads on odd dates and vehicles ending  with even digit on even dates.

An analysis which was published in the Indian Journal of Science and Technology, ‘Assessment of Air Quality‘ during the odd even scheme of vehicles in Delhi by P Goyal and Geetika Gandhi of NorthCap university of Gurugram stated that there was some reduction in pollution and also traffic but a single scheme wouldn’t bring a drastic change in reducing pollution. 

Also, a campaign Yuddh Pradushan Ke Virudh was launched. Delhi government has launched ‘Green War Room’ that will be like a centre of collaboration of different agencies that will work together for improving air pollution.

He also announced the launch of a mobile app called Green Delhi  for increasing awareness and public participation. In addition, the Delhi government is also coordinating with neighbouring states like Punjab and Haryana for finding alternatives for stubble burning. Also, 13 hotspots have been recognised that have higher pollution that includes Dwarka, Narela, Wazirpur, Jahangirpur, Vivek Vihar and etc.

So, these hotspots include industrial areas, as well as where waste are burned , road and traffic congestion is quite frequent in these areas. Also, a tree policy has been introduced that aims for increasing the green cover in Delhi and this aims for tackling pollution and also the use of fossil fuels. Also, was launched AAP government approved the plan for felling more than 1700 trees. 

Electricity 

Households which have consumption until 200 units get free electricity and get full subsidy. 

From 201 units to 400 units 50% subsidy is provided. Due to this there are around 14 lakh households in Delhi which get zero rupee electricity bill. Also, the government did not let the power tariffs rise. 

Also, the AAP government has introduced a new electric vehicle policy which aims that in 2024, 25% of vehicles in Delhi would be electric vehicles in which various subsidies are included. 

It was reported that in 2017, the demand for electricity in Delhi was 6526 megawatts, in 2018 the consumption increased to 7016 megawatts. 

So it was concluded that consistently the demand for electricity had been growing and even temperatures have been growing and hence there is more usage of air conditioners. Also, Delhi

Due to this in 2017-18, Rs 1697 crore was allocated and in 2018-19 Rs 1759 was allocated to energy. Also, Delhi did not become a solar city as promised; only a few societies in Dwarka adopted solar energy.

Women Security

In Delhi buses, 5500 home guards were deployed as marshals. Also, it is promised to deploy the Mohalla marshals. CCTV cameras have been installed around 1.4 lakh. In December, 2019 the AAP government promised to install more than two lakh street lights. 

Water Supply

It was promised to supply 20,000 liters of water for free and it was fulfilled and due to this there are thirteen lakh households that have zero water bill.

But it was also promised to supply piped water to jhuggi jhopri and unauthorized colonies. But the data of Delhi Jal Board 2019, states that only seven jhuggi jhopri had a pipe connection provided. Also, through the investigation of India Today, it was found that they went to unfamiliar places to sample the water quality. The team found that at Mayur Vihar apartment the water quality was unfit to consume and there was shortage of water.

Their results finally concluded that 5 out of 9 places had clean and safe water to consume and four places had bad water quality and unsafe to consume that.

Transportation

In 2010, there used to be around more than 6,000 DTC buses but by March 2019, there were around more than 3000 buses. In November 2019, around 100 DTC buses were purchased and these new buses had several things like GPS trackers , CCTVs cameras, panic buttons and special seating for disabled people.

Jobs And Business

The AAP government introduced DVAT MSewa app the main purpose of it was to reduce ‘inspector raj’ in Delhi and also several resolutions were passed against 100 percent FDI in retail. 

The Delhi government launched a skill centre at Vivek Vihar, but it wasn’t very successful in providing jobs to more than one lakh youth per year.

RTI reports filed by Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee and the statistical handbook of Delhi’s employment showed that the AAP government only provided around 214 jobs till 2017.  Therefore, the promise for increasing the minimum wage by 37% isn’t fulfilled. Also, the promise of creating eight lakh jobs isn’t fulfilled.  

Featured image is for representational purposes only.