As the poll campaign nears a crescendo, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi is counting on her administrative experience of over three decades as an IPS officer to deliver on her promise of strong governance that can ensure security for women, employment and welfare initiatives.
Ms. Bedi has been emphasising a “6P scheme” to address issues related to women’s security. “The government will work in collaboration with people, parents, principals, preachers along with the police, prosecution, prisons, press, politicians,” Ms. Bedi said. Her 6P plan underlines the role of parents and principals in teaching equality to girls and boys alike, while emphasising on the contribution of religious preachers in sending out the “right messages”. “Preachers from all religions also play an important role. They have to use the right messages for women’s dignity,” the former bureaucrat said.
She has also promised a more efficient women’s helpline, which she intends to keep with the “Chief Minister’s office”.
In her rallies, Ms. Bedi has also been prescribing solutions to end Delhi’s water and power woes, pointing out that BJP-ruled Haryana will assist in tackling the issues. “We need to start planning for summers in advance to tackle issues of water and electricity shortage. There should be no problem as Haryana is with us, the BJP-led government will supply us with water,” she said.
Ms. Bedi has been regularly updating all social media platforms, sharing her plans along with regular updates of her rallies, roadshows and interactions with the “man on the street”.
“Women will be trained to form self-help groups to make them self reliant... with focus on rural women and urban poor,” Ms. Bedi had tweeted on Saturday.
Ms. Bedi has also sought to reach out to NGOs seeking their assistance in ensuring women’s security and sanitation and said that those working in the field will be given due respect. “They will get all possible help from the government, whatever grants they need. We will re-look any rule or bureaucracy coming in the way,” said Ms. Bedi, who runs two NGOs herself.
The NGOs will aid the government over what action needs to be taken and will remain non-political, she said.
Taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popular monthly radio talk ‘Mann Ki Baat’, she has proposed to start a series ‘Dilli Ki Baat’ which would do a regular analysis of crimes against women. “The analysis of any incident would be aired on the radio; you can call it anything ‘Dilli Ki Baat’ or ‘Dil Ki Baat’. There will also be talks about grooming girls. As a CM I will lead the government, but as a woman I will lead this social revolution,” Ms. Bedi told reporters here.
The former cop, popularly known as ‘Crane Bedi’, also proposed to bring back civil defence volunteers in the Capital to aid the police force. “We’ll create our own army of policemen, out of the civil defence volunteers. It usually takes three years to enter the police service, but through civil defence we will be able to train a larger number of young men and women,” she said. “Civil defence comes directly under the State budget so there will be no need to ask the Centre for any money,” Ms. Bedi said during her road shows.
Among the other ideas, Ms. Bedi has proposed turning schools and college buildings into polytechnics in the evening to make vocational training accessible to a larger number of people without any investment in infrastructure. Ms. Bedi also spoke of organising “Career Melas” in collaboration between corporates and educational institutes in order to bring down the level of unemployment.
She has also said that if voted to power, she would ensure that government dispensaries are not shut down after 2 p.m. and homoeopathy and ayurveda experts are roped in to offer medical facilities in each locality.
Ms. Bedi maintains that her pitch for women’s security is not a political statement, but an attempt to bring about a “social revolution”. – PTI
Ms. Bedi also wants to bring back civil defence volunteers to aid the police force
