School education should be entirely free: Deputy CM Sisodia

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in an exclusive interview with Aaisha Sabir of Millennium Post, talks about the budget, upcoming elections, education and student protests.

Excerpts:

What are the major accomplishments of AAP in Finance?

In our overall governance we have maintained honest practices which has encouraged people to pay taxes. We have always been open to new ideas for example when people demanded we reduce tax rate, we took the chance and slashed it to 5 per cent. At one point of time I got a tip from a shopkeeper that they were being harassed by officials. After this, I met officials from my department and after two days I called a meeting of all trade associations and told them that this Diwali there will be no enforcement department. Such steps created confidence amongst the traders and people who paid taxes, hence, we have risen from 30,000 crore to 60,000 crore.

What are the ideas that you wish you had executed in finance or education in this tenure but wish to accomplish in your next tenure ?

We started 'Bill Banvao Inaam Pao' scheme but could not see it through. We said that if you are purchasing any product then take the bill and take a photo of the TIN number and send it to us. It's sort of a lottery ticket system. We had said that we would give 5 times of the bill up to a maximum of Rs 50,000 as a reward to the lucky draw winner. We implemented this for roughly a year. In the first month of its implementation we found tax evasion of 300 crore in total. You go and buy a product you get a bill you pay tax but in reality those people do not deposit tax to the government. It was a win-win situation because even if we had to give away prize money in return we caught a scam of 300 crore.

There was fee and hostel hike in various universities in India recently, will AAP do something like this too if they come back to power?

School education should be free entirely, but in Higher education it should be subsidised for those who cannot afford it. There should be various schemes for them including loans and scholarships, which are already in place but subsidy should also be there. In research oriented work you do not get highly paid jobs but research is very important. So if the government does not subsidise such courses then you will have people only from financially well off background. If you do not provide subsidised education to students from villages then that specific sector will be dominated by the rich only.

We recently saw students taking to the streets to protest while many parties condemned students protesting that they should be confined to their studies. What is your take on it?

This is a very conservative thought and if we think this way then we have not understood education and our definition of education is sitting in classrooms and learning, and getting a degree. This act of raising your voice against anything that you do not like is also part of your education. I have often said this to teachers in workshops too.

Will you be taking up any initiative for women hygiene they way you initiated a pledge by students to respect women in all the schools.

There are groups working in the department. We have celebrated period festivals too. We have tried to break taboos surrounding menstruation through workshops with teachers and students. Not just medical awareness about menstruation but the lack of scientific knowledge about this also needs to be created. This is happening slowly and we are involving boys too.

The Centre has cut down the education budget meanwhile the CM announced that they had tripled it. How did you manage that?

In finance, the honest government aspect encouraged people to pay taxes. We see education as the future. Other departments like water and power are facilities for the present. But ultimately you need education for your future, if you are looking at the future of the nation then you have to prioritise education today and invest in it. We did not plan that we have to triple the education budget we just kept filling up the gaps. We prioritised education and tried to make adjustments in other sectors, however, that was not needed also, as we managed to meet demands in all sectors too.