Education top priority in ‘ trickleup’ budget
IN A FIRST The govt announced a total budget outlay of ₹53,000 crore for the coming fiscal
NEWDELHI: The Delhi government put thrust on fighting air pollution, giving more mobility options to citizens, and allocating larger funds to deprived neighbourhoods, while keeping its focus on health and education intact in its 2018-19 budget presented in the state assembly on Thursday.
Crossing the ₹50,000-crore mark for the first time, the government announced a total budget outlay of ₹53,000 for the coming fiscal, which is a 10.42% increase from the budget estimate of last year. At a press briefing after the budget announcements, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the increase in the allocation was only possible because of its “anti-corruption” policy, which included tapping leakages in tax collection.
“In the Congress’ three years of government, budget outlay increased by only ₹4,000 crore. In three years of AAP government, the same has increased by ₹23,000 crore. We had started with just ₹30,000 crore,” he said.
Taxes, one of the most talked about aspects of the budget, were missing since the government could not introduce any new levy due to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Having faced a lot of flak over its failure to come up with longterm measures to control pollution in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party government introduced what it called the the city’s first Green Budget. “For the past three years, our continued focus has brought education and health sectors on track. From this budget onwards, I have shifted attention and funds to other sectors like environment and transport which somehow are lagging behind,” deputy chief minister and finance minister Manish Sisodia said.
For the fourth consecutive year, the government gave a lion’s share to education — 26% of the total budget outlay, up from 24% last year. Healthcare received the second-highest funds with ₹6,729 crore.
In spite of the increased budget outlay this year, the transport sector saw a reduction in allocation — from ₹5,506 to ₹5145. Failure to add public buses and decongest the city roads have earned consistent criticism for the government. The strengthening of public transport would also have played a role in bringing down pollution levels. But this year, the government announced timelines for itself to add buses to the DTC fleet and build new bus depots. To ensure that voters in illegal colonies and slums remain loyal to it, the allocation for social welfare was increased to ₹4,155 crore from ₹3,467 crore. “Almost all unauthorised colonies will have decentralised sewage treatment plants and roads will be resurfaced,” Kejriwal said.
After not following through last year on its poll promise of providing free Wifi in public places, the government revived the project and allocated ₹100 crore for it, but gave no timeline for its execution.
Industry body CII welcomed the Delhi government’s green budget. “I am sure the 26-point plan to clean the environment will improve the quality of life of Delhi’s citizens in the short to medium term. The announcement of the government to conduct energy and water audits is highly appreciated,” Nikhil Sawhney, chairman-delhi state, CII, told PTI.
In his 100-minute-long budget speech, Sisodia talked about how the Delhi government was using a “trickle up” economic model instead of the traditional “trickle down” model. “The trickle up model is one where economic policies of the government directly benefit the poor and middle-class citizens leading to better education, health and a rise in their income levels. This has been the single-minded motto of our government: ‘Educated India, Healthy India, Strong India’,” the minister said. 1,000 buses to be inducted in DTC fleet
1,000 cluster buses to be added by February, 2019 Common Mobility Card to begin in all buses from April 2018 Construction of
12,748 classrooms,
30 school buildings
366 Sarvodaya Vidyalayas to get Nursery classes
Self-defence classes for schoolgirls
A 750 mt-tunnel was to be constructed below the Ashram intersection on Mathura road. Project did not get financial approval
The corridor was to come up between Anand Vihar and airport. The project could not start because of railway's objection
The SC directed that by the end of 2018, Delhi should have 10,000 buses. The govt only has 5,600 buses and an additional 1,000 have been promised in this budget.
Govt fell short on attempts to curb pollution across the capital. For instance, in Dec an anti-smog gun was deployed in Anand Vihar which failed to have any impact on air quality readings
The NGT had told the government to implement the Yamuna Revitalisation Project 2017. But the project missed its deadline.