Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the AAP government's Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana to give Rs 1,000 to all women above 18 years of age will make them financially independent and urged them to vote in large numbers for his party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
While addressing a townhall event in the national capital organised to interact with the women, the Delhi CM took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party and said that they say that Kejriwal is wasting money by giving Rs 1,000 to every woman in the city and the women will be spoiled because of the scheme. "I ask them, When you waived off the big loans of a lot of people, weren't they spoiled?," he said.
The Delhi CM highlighted the importance of the Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana. He said that it would make women empowered in the truest sense and stated that every eligible woman, even from the same family, can avail the benefits of the scheme.
The AAP National Convenor also urged the women voters to vote for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the general elections. "It is your responsibility now to convince your husbands, brothers, fathers, and other people in the locality to vote for the person who is working for their benefit," Kejriwal said.
While addressing Mahila Samman Samaroh, Kejriwal said that fraud has been going on in the name of women's empowerment till now, and an empty purse does not do empowerment.
"In this budget, we have announced a big scheme for the empowerment of women. Till now, fraud has been going on in the name of empowerment. Till now, they used to praise a woman from the party and say that women were being empowered. Now I will put a thousand rupees in every woman's purse every month. An empty purse does not do empowerment," the Delhi CM said, as quoted by news agency ANI.
"This will be the biggest women's empowerment programme in the entire world. Till now, it has not happened anywhere in the world that Rs 1000 has been given to the entire female population. Even if the woman's husband has been paying income tax, the woman will still get a thousand rupees. If a woman is doing a government job, is getting a pension, or is paying income tax, then she will not get this benefit. If there are three women in a family, then only all three will get this benefit," he further stated.