Chandigarh: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced that if voted to power, his party would install a dalit as Deputy chief minister of the state.
While rolling out a 19-point separate dalit manifesto here, Mr Kejriwal said, “So far in Punjab, every political party used dalits as mere vote bank and always denied their dues in power”.
“I hereby announced that AAP would give dalits their dues and first time in Punjab, a dalit will be installed as deputy CM,” Mr Kejriwal vowed, revealing that in Delhi, out of total 70 seats, 12 are reserved and all of them are represented by AAP candidates.
He said that it is first time in the history of Punjab that any party has released a separate manifesto for dalits and assured that it is not merely a poll document, but an agreement with the dalits.
He said in Delhi, the AAP government has already initiated the process to regularise the services of Safaikaramcharis and in Punjab, too, the party would regularise all contractual employees.
For the overall up-liftment of dalits, the standard of education would be improved to match that of private schools, so that even the wards of dalits would be imparted quality education, said the Delhi CM. “The other key concern for not only dalits but for all Punjabis is a poor health system in Punjab, Mr Kejriwal said, adding that the AAP government will open a clinic in every village on the pattern of Mohalla clinics opened in Delhi, where all medical facilities, including medicines and tests, are being provided for free.
