AAP deceived women with monetary promise: Cong, Kejriwal junks charge
Punjab Congress leaders on Saturday termed as “fake” AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s promise of providing Delhi women with a monthly stipend, saying he “deceived” Punjab voters with a similar pledge that remains unfulfilled despite his party being in power in the state for three years now.
The allegation came as some women protested outside Kejriwal’s Firozshah Road residence in the Capital, demanding the payment of a monthly honorarium of Rs 1,000 to women in Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-ruled Punjab.
Reacting sharply to it, Kejriwal — who is also a former Delhi Chief Minister — claimed that the protesting women were from the Congress and the BJP.
“These women belong to the Congress and the BJP, not Punjab. All women in Punjab stand with AAP. They trust us,” he asserted.
He also accused his India bloc partner Congress of collaborating with the BJP ahead of the Delhi Assembly poll due in February and dared both parties to “officially declare that they are contesting the election against AAP in an alliance”.
AAP and the Congress had contested in a 4-3 arrangement the Lok Sabha poll in Delhi last year as part of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc. Both parties have decided to go solo in the Delhi Assembly poll.
Earlier in a pre-poll promise, the former CM assured Delhi women that on retaining power in the poll, his party’s government will provide them with an increased monthly stipend of Rs 2,100 under the Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojana.The scheme was announced in the Delhi Budget for 2024-25, promising to give women aged 18 and above a monthly stipend of Rs 1,000.
Delhi’s ruling AAP had also initiated a registration drive for the scheme, against which Delhi government’s Women and Child Development Department had cautioned people through a public notice published in newspapers, saying no such scheme has been notified so far.
Now, upping the ante against AAP, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring told reporters at Delhi’s Vijay Chowk that the Kejriwal-led party is yet to fulfil its promise of providing Rs 1,000 to women in Punjab and it is making another similar “fake” promise to Delhi residents.
“From where the budget for the scheme come? Who will give it? Will there be a provision in the Budget? He [Kejriwal] made the promise even when arrangements are yet to be made for its implementation [in Punjab],” he said.
He said when Kejriwal was asked at the time of the 2022 Punjab Assembly poll from where the money for the scheme would come, he had replied he will generate Rs 20,000 crore every year from sand mining and ?34,000 by curbing corruption.
“Just like AAP deceived the Punjab woman, it is going to deceive the Delhi women now. The people of Delhi should not fall for false words and false promises,” Warring said.
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