Delhi Cabinet 2025: Ashish Sood gets education; students, teachers press for fee reduction, job security

NEW DELHI: After 26 years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed the Delhi government on Thursday. The only female minister, Rekha Gupta, in the newly formed Delhi Cabinet took charge as the chief minister of the national capital. Along with her, six ministers were sworn-in at the Ramlila ground in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The six ministers for the newly formed Delhi government are - Parvesh Verma, Ashish Sood, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Ravinder Indraj, Kapil Mishra, and Pankaj Kumar Singh.

On Thursday late evening, several media reports claimed that Parvesh Verma was given the education department. However, as per the official announcement, the Delhi education, higher education, and technical education departments have been assigned to Ashish Sood. He completed BCom from Atma Ram Sanatan Dharam College, Delhi University. Notably, CM Rekha Gupta, minister Parvesh Verma are also graduates of Delhi University.

The new Cabinet approved the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Yojana in its first meeting. "Ayushman Bharat Yojana was our flagship scheme. The previous government did allow it to be implemented in Delhi and yesterday during the first Cabinet meeting we gave it approval and after signing MoU with the central government, we will implement it in Delhi," Ashish Sood told the PTI.

"The Bharatiya Janata Party does not make promises like they do. To implement any scheme, the necessary work must be done, and our Chief Minister is working swiftly in this regard.." he added.

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Requests from Delhi students, teachers

Congratulating Ashish Sood, a student wrote on X: “Current tuition fee is Rs 4.5 lakh/year which is higher than even private college and shame for a Delhi govt University please bring it to 2 LPA.” The X user also informed the new Delhi education minister that there are no sufficient hostel facilities in the national capital.

“Congratulations sir, we hope that you will bring betterment in education and make Delhi number one in education,” another student added.

A National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) vocational trainers group requested the newly elected government to re-implement NSQF, skill education in government schools of Delhi. Additionally, “Vocational trainers who have been working for 10 years and were fired during the Kejriwal government's tenure should be re-employed,” the tweet added.

Another teacher urged the new minister to solve the problems faced by Delhi guest teachers. “There is no job security even after serving for 16 years. You get wages only for the days you go to school (i.e. only for 210 days in a year). Salary has not been increased for 8 years,” it read.

Delhi Cabinet Members List: Who gets what?

The portfolio of Delhi Cabinet was announced on Thursday late evening. Here’s the complete list.

Rekha Gupta, Delhi Chief Minister - Finance, Planning, GAD, WCD, Services, Revenue, Land and Building, I&PR, Vigilance, AR. Any other department not allocated to other ministers.

Pravesh Sahib Singh Verma, deputy chief minister - PWD, Legislative Affairs, I&FC, Water, Gurudwara Elections

Ashish Sood - Home, Power, UD, Education, Higher Education, Training & Technical Education.

Sardar Manjinder Singh Sirsa , Food Minister - Supplies, Forest & Environment, Industries &

Ravinder Singh (Indraj) - Social Welfare, SC & ST Welfare, Cooperative, Elections

Kapil Mishra - Law and Justice, Labour Department, Employment Department, Development, Art and Culture, Language Department, Tourism Department

Pankaj Kumar Singh - Health and Family Welfare, Transport, Information Technology.