To woo voters in Haryana, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday pledged to roll back any potential school fee hike if his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power after next year's state assembly elections.
"I want to tell the people of Haryana that if the fee gets hiked, the Aam Aadmi Party is coming in Haryana in one year. After forming the government here, we will roll back increased fee by private schools and give it back to the people of Haryana with due interest," Kejriwal said.
He was addressing a gathering here at the "school-hospital rally" along with his deputy and Education Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia.
Kejriwal said that Haryana, just like Delhi, now wants better schools and hospitals and "the Aam Aadmi Party will be the catalyst to that change".
"We are not saying this without proof. In Delhi, private schools arbitrarily hiked their fee but we ordered them to roll back the hike. In the last 3 years, we have not let them increase their fees," he said.
In the past few months, the Directorate of Education has ordered 191 private schools to roll back their "arbitrary fee hike".
In May this year, the Delhi government had asked three private schools to roll back their fee hike for the 2018-19 academic session. The order also asked the schools to refund the increased fee to parents without delay and warned of action if this was not done.
Kejriwal also attacked the previous governments of Haryana, saying that they failed to develop the state in terms of education and health.
"Every government, from Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Om Prakash Chautala to Manohar Lal Khattar, instead of developing schools and hospitals in Haryana, only indulged in corruption," the AAP convenor said.
At the rally, Kejriwal also attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government for the recent attack on him at the Delhi Secretariat in which a middle-aged man tried to rub chilli powder on his eyes and face.
"Khattar sir has been in the government for four years and he was not attacked even once. No other Chief Minister has been attacked like this but I have been attacked four times in the last two years," Kejriwal said.
Election for Haryana's 90-seat assembly is scheduled for late 2019, after the general election that will send 10 representatives to the Lok Sabha.
--IANS
sd/shs/vm
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
