New Delhi, Apr 14 (PTI) The BJP on Monday alleged that AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal “betrayed” Dr B R Ambedkar’s dreams by neglecting the educational uplifting of underprivileged students.

Kejriwal put up pictures of Ambedkar in the Delhi Secretariat but showed no interest in implementing the educational schemes for Dalits and the underprivileged students, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said in a statement.

The politician’s remarks came on the day when leaders across political parties paid their tributes to Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution, on his 135th birth anniversary.

Sachdeva asked Kejriwal why out of Rs 891 crore reserved for the backwards’ education between 2020 and 2024, only less than 5 per cent – 40.80 crore – was spent.

“In the past 78 years, if any one government in Delhi is found most guilty of betraying the dreams of Bharat Ratna Dr B R Ambedkar, it is the Arvind Kejriwal government,” he alleged.

During the ten-year rule of AAP, Kejriwal “politically exploited” the Dalit and oppressed communities by merely showing them Ambedkar’s pictures, while “ignoring” his messages, he said.

Sachdeva claimed that the Kejriwal government limited Dalit uplifting to hoardings and photographs of Ambedkar, showing grand dreams of improvement in Dalit colonies between 2020 and 2024.

“However, while Rs 260 crore was allocated in the budget during those four years, only Rs 121 crore was spent — an amount almost equal to what the Kejriwal government spent on building a palace for himself and furnishing ministers’ offices in the Secretariat,” he alleged.

In 2020, the Kejriwal government introduced the Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana for the welfare of Scheduled Caste students and allocated Rs 180 crore between 2020 and 2024. However, only Rs 4.4 crore was spent on the scheme, claimed the Delhi BJP president.

And, for students from minority, caste-based backward and economically weaker backgrounds, the Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana launched with an allocation of Rs 250 crore over four years, but only Rs 4.2 crore was spent, Sachdeva said.

Of Rs 461 crore allocated between 2020 and 2024 to the Mukhyamantri Vidyarthi Pratibha Yojana, only Rs 32.2 crore was spent, he added. PTI VIT VN VN