Navelim: Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday announced Rs 500 crore worth schemes in the poll bound state of Goa terming it as world’s biggest women empowerment initiative to help them out financially.
Party’s National Convener Arvind Kejriwal, who is on two-day-long visit to the coastal state, addressing a convention of women in South Goa’s Navelim Assembly segment rolled out the pre-poll guarantee, which would be fulfilled once his party comes to power in the tourist state.
Kejriwal assured that the existing remuneration of Rs 1,500 which is provided under state sponsored Grih Adhar scheme to women would be increased to Rs 2,500 while those women of more than 18 years’ age, who are not covered under the scheme would be paid Rs 1,000 per month.
He said that the expense on this scheme would be around Rs 500 crore annually, which would be funded by the state government by completely eliminating the corruption in the system.
“This is going to be the biggest and most important women empowerment program in the world, not only in India,” he said addressing a huge gathering of women in South Goa.
Kejriwal said that financial stability is most important for any woman to feel empowered. “Once a woman is financially stable, she will feel empowered as she can spend the money to do those extra things for the family,” he said.
The Delhi chief minister said that many girls, who have left the college due to financial constraints, can use Rs 1,000 per month deposited in her account for continuing with her education. He said that the state government will give options to women, who are financially well to do, to opt out of the scheme.
“We will offer the scheme to all the women in the state. Those who feel that they don’t require it, can opt out of it,” he said.
Kejriwal said that there is no dearth of finance to fund such schemes in Goa. “The state budget is Rs 22,000 crore, of which approximately 20 per cent, which means Rs 4,400 crore goes into corruption. We will pump this money in the system to fund these schemes,” he said.
The AAP leader said that the annual expense of all his guarantees made in Goa would be less than Rs 1,000 crore.
