AAP questions why Rs 2,500 financial aid not approved in first Delhi Cabinet meeting

New Delhi: AAP leader Atishi on Friday questioned why the Delhi government did not pass a scheme to provide an honorarium of Rs 2,500 to the city's women at its first cabinet meeting.

Atishi, a former Delhi chief minister, accused the newly formed BJP government of "failing to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of providing financial assistance to women under the Mahila Samridhi Yojana.

Addressing a press conference, Atishi said before the Delhi elections, Modi and BJP national president JP Nadda had assured that in the very first cabinet meeting, the scheme would be approved and every woman in Delhi would receive Rs 2,500 in her bank account by March 8.

"After the BJP's ministers took their oath and held a cabinet meeting at 7 pm on Thursday, no such scheme was passed. If Modi’s guarantee was real, this scheme should have been approved yesterday. But the first decision taken by newly appointed CM Rekha Gupta was to betray that promise,” the Kalkaji MLA alleged.

Displaying posters featuring Modi and Gupta, she asked, "When will this amount be credited to their accounts? Was this just another election gimmick?" Both the AAP and the BJP promised monthly financial assistance to women ahead of the elections and it has been a much-discussed issue during the campaign.

A day after AAP was ousted from power in Delhi on February 8, party supremo Arvind Kejriwal met the party's 22 newly elected MLAs at his residence.

Following the meeting, Atishi said the AAP will ensure that the BJP pays Rs 2,500 per month to women by March 8 as promised by it, provides 300 units of free electricity and continues other facilities for the people.

At the press conference on Friday, when asked about the new government's decision to table 14 CAG reports in the next assembly session, Atishi dismissed it as "routine work.

"When I was CM, I also sent the CAG report to Ram Niwas. It is part of the process," she said.

The BJP government said it will table the CAG reports "against the performance of AAP government" in the assembly in the session that will begin on Monday.

BJP's Rekha Gupta was sworn-in as Delhi CM and six other MLAs were inducted into her cabinet on Thursday.

At its maiden meeting on Thursday, the newly-formed Delhi Cabinet approved the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme in the capital, discussed Mahila Samriddhi Yojna, and also decided to table 14 pending CAG reports in the first session of the eighth Assembly.