New Delhi:

Singh informed the delegation about the various welfare programmes aimed at helping transgender individuals live with dignity and become self-reliant. The minister said the government would take steps to raise public awareness about trans rights, promote social inclusion and spread information about the schemes available. He also mentioned that a notification regarding the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules would be issued shortly.

Application forms of all Delhi government welfare schemes will now include a “third gender” option, Social Welfare Minister Ravindra Indraj Singh said on Friday during a meeting with a delegation of trans persons. Under the directive of Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, the social welfare department has made this option mandatory to ensure that trans persons with disabilities can fully access the benefits of government schemes, according to a statement.

Expressing their appreciation, the delegation members said it was the first time a government had shown genuine concern for their rights and self-reliance while also directly engaging with them to share important information, according to the statement.

AAP questions Delhi govt on private schools audits

“Delhi ministers are constantly misleading,” Bharadwaj said at a press conference. “Education Minister Ashish Sood claimed on Thursday that he had got more than 650 schools audited. This is a blatant lie. I say with full confidence that the government has not even appointed an auditor yet.”

The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday accused the BJP-led Delhi government of misleading public over the auditing of private school accounts. Alleging that the government’s claim of auditing over 650 schools was a “blatant lie”, AAP’s Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj demanded that the audit reports be made public.

Challenging the veracity of the government’s claims, Bharadwaj asked, “If the government has conducted an audit, then it should keep its promise and make the audit report public. The education minister is claiming that he has got 650 schools audited, so at least one school must have been found to be wrong? Has the government taken any action against this school?”

“Children were exploited in many private schools under the protection of the BJP government. Even after the district magistrate’s visit, the situation did not change in a private school and children continued to be made to sit in the library,” Bharadwaj said, referring to one such case.

“The AAP government only made sensational comments about private schools and took populist stands to grab media attention,” Sood said, accusing the previous government of inaction against errant institutions. The minister said the Delhi School Education Act, 1973, mandates annual audits for all 1,677 private schools in the city, but under the AAP government only around 75 schools were audited each year on an average.

The political row over fee hikes by private schools and their audits has intensified amid broader debates on transparency, regulatory oversight and education policy in the national capital.

“Upset over this, the parents went to Delhi High Court. When the court asked the government, the government informed that a notice has been issued to the school. The court made a strict comment on this reply and asked why did you not take action on time?” Bharadwaj said.

The AAP leader’s remarks come a day after Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood announced that with the help of sub-divisional magistrates, the Rekha Gupta-led administration had audited the accounts of 650 schools. Sood claimed that this was in sharp contrast to the tenure of AAP, which he said only managed 750 school audits in 10 years.

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