New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS): Taking a dig at his political rivals over their "freebie" remarks, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has asked why it is fine for ministers to get free treatment while the same facilities if provided to the people are criticised.
"Four thousand units of electricity is free for every Minister, if he gets free electricity, then it is not a 'freebie'; but when I give 200 units of free electricity to the people of Delhi, then it is called a 'freebie'," Kejriwal said at Advocates' Conference organised by the Aam Aadmi Party's legal cell on Wednesday.
The AAP government is frequently targeted by its political rivals for dols to Delhi voters in the guise of free electricity, water, travel for women in buses, among other schemes.
"The opposition party leaders say, where will the money come from? All the ministers and officials who used to loot money together, we stopped that loot. All that money which used to be stolen from the government, we started distributing that money to the public, he said, adding, "There is a lot of money with the government, but these people have fooled the public that there is no money."
"He informed that the Delhi Cabinet had passed a life and medical insurance scheme to all lawyers on December 18, 2019, no one in the world knew then that Covid-19 would hit us. Nearly Rs 12.25 crore were given under the life insurance scheme to the families of 122 lawyers who lost their lives during Covid-19. Nearly 1,220 lawyers have used the medical insurance scheme at the time of Covid for which Rs 7.25 crore was released."
"A rumour about the duration of this scheme has been going around -- people are wondering whether this scheme is applicable only for a year. But we will keep this scheme running. Work is being done to overcome any hindrances that have come up. Talks and negotiations with LIC are also in the process currently, which will definitely be successful."
"After this the scheme will easily be extended and a few lawyer friends of ours, whom I found out were unable to register earlier, can register soon as we will reopen the portal," the AAP Chief added.