Most sectors see hike in allotment, education stays priority
NEW DELHI: The education sector, once again, witnessed the highest allocation in Delhi’s annual budget, followed by health, transport, water and sewer, housing and urban development, power and social security, according to the budget document tabled in the Delhi Assembly by finance minister Manish Sisodia on Monday.
The budget outlay for 2020-21 was proposed at ₹65,000 crore, which is around 8.33% higher than the previous financial year’s outlay. The proposed budget of ₹65,000 crore includes ₹48,070.47 crore for revenue expenditure and ₹16,929.53 crore for capital expenditure, the document stated.
HEALTH
Healthcare received the secondhighest allocation in the 2020-21 budget, with a special allocation of ₹50 crore for providing adequate quarantine facilities to fight Covid-19.
However, according to the former head of AIIMS, Delhi, Dr MC Mishra, “I don’t think ₹50 crore will be enough to tackle Covid-19 if there is a crisis. But funds can be mobilised according to the needs.”
The government, in a U-turn, decided to implement the central health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat. “Implementing Ayushman Bharat will be beneficial for Delhi; it would mean that Delhi hospitals will be able to earn from the scheme. AIIMS Rishikesh is now able to pay the salaries of its staff from the money received under Ayushman Bharat,” Mishra said.
The highest allocation in the sector is for the construction and remodelling of hospitals. Rupees 724 crore have been allocated for this purpose, a major spike from last year’s revised budget of ₹195 crore.
The government has directed the Public Works Department (PWD) to arrange 200 beds in a Burari hospital to increase its isolation capacity for the fight against Covid-19.
EDUCATION
For 2020-21, the government allocated ₹ 15,815 crore to this sector, which is around 24.33% of the total budget.
Sisodia said that the government would take part in the programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test in 2024. The PISA is an international students’ programme intended to evaluate educational systems by measuring the performance of Mathematics, Science and reading skills of 15-year-old students. As many as 80 countries participate in the test every year.
Sisodia announced that at least 10 classrooms in all Delhi government schools will be converted into digital classrooms this year.
The government has further announced the establishment of at least five Schools of Excellence—the only completely English medium state-run schools—in all 29 districts of the city. At present, there are only six such schools in Delhi.
The government has also announced the establishment of a Delhi-based education board. An amount of ₹62 crore is being allocated for this.
Educationist Shyama Chona said that there are several “student-centric” decisions in the budget. “The idea of the establishment of new English medium schools in each district will give more opportunities to students. The idea of converting evening schools into normal-shift schools is also very students’ centric,” she said.
TRANSPORT
This sector witnessed the allocation of ₹ 5,941 crore against ₹ 5,882 in the previous budget.
Sisodia said new low-floor buses have now been included in Delhi’s transport fleet for the first time since the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Altogether, 2,485 new buses will be added to the fleet during the year 2020-21 and 1,880 buses will be purchased from 2021-22.
He further said, “It has been decided to convert four depots, including Okhla, Hari Nagar, Vasant Vihar and Hasanpur into multilevel bus depots. These will probably be the first multilevel depots of their kind in the country.”
Work on additional corridors of Metro Phase III and NCR extensions (of length 158km) has already been commissioned. The government has approved all six corridors of the Metro Phase IV project.
ENVIRONMENT & FORESTS
To bring down pollution levels in the national capital in the next five years, the Delhi government on Monday allocated ₹ 20,000 crore in its annual budget.
“To encourage people to contribute towards environmental protection and preservation work, green citizen awards will be instituted,” Sisodia said.
A sum of ₹30 crore will also be utilised to set up smog towers across the city.
However, in the former chief of the Central Pollution Control Board’s air laboratory D Saha’s opinion, smog towers are not the best option for controlling the high pollution levels in the city as its meteorological conditions make it all the more unsuitable.
“In an open area, there is a limitation on how much these filters can process. Resources should be diverted on doable measures such as limiting car use, greening and controlling dust levels. These are not only comparatively inexpensive, but they also yield better results,” Saha said.
WATER & SEWERS
With a hike of about 70% in the total allocation for water supply and sanitation in 2020-21 fiscal compared to last year, the deputy CM proposed an outlay of ₹3,724 crore for implementing several schemes and projects under the
Delhi Jal Board (DJB) beside an amount of ₹467 crore for continuing with the free lifeline water subsidy scheme to households with a consumption of 20,000 litres per month. “The reason for this is that more funds have been allocated for unauthorised colonies, sewer treatment plants and interceptor sewerage,” he added.
The government has mostly continued with schemes announced last year, including rejuvenation of water bodies, cleaning of the Yamuna river and expanding the sewerage network in unauthorised colonies except for the ‘Mukhyamantri Muft Sewer Yojana’, for which it has allocated another ₹110 crore.
“The government must focus on a road map for implementing projects under this huge outlay, such as for cleaning the Yamuna. Also, for its free water scheme, they should identify a section, which cannot pay rather than to everyone who consumes up to 20,000 litres,” said Manoj Misra of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan.
HOUSING & URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Development works have been completed or are in progress in 1,281 colonies of 1,797 unauthorised colonies in Delhi. “Of the ₹3,723 crore allotted to this sector, ₹1,700 crore has been set aside for the purpose,” said Sisodia in his budget speech.
The budget document said that to supplement general development works at the local level, a new scheme “Chief Minister Local Area Development” has been proposed in the budget estimate 2020-21 with an outlay of ₹400 crore, in addition to ₹450 crore for “Mukhyamantri Sadak Punrothan Yojana”.
In order to take care of the safety and security of people in every part of Delhi, a new scheme “CM Mohalla Suraksha Yojana” with an allocation of ₹ 100 crore has been proposed in the 2020-21 budget, the document stated.