Sisodia: Budget denies Delhi its due, allocation for education inadequate
The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi on Monday criticised the Union Budget for poor fiscal devolution as it claimed that Delhi got a “megre” ₹957 crore, adding that the Central government’s policies will only benefit “big companies” and cause inflation.
Comparing the Central grant to Delhi with other Union Territories that have an assembly, Delhi finance minister Manish Sisodia said that the Centre did not grant any funds to the three Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp)-ruled municipal corporations in Delhi to help them tide over a financial crisis.
“The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which is constitutionally on similar a footing with the NCT of Delhi, has been provided a grant of Rs
NEW DELHI:
30,757 crore compared to ₹957 crore to Delhi. There are three UTS with a legislature in India, and of them Delhi gets the least grant in absolute terms and ridiculously low amount in terms of per capita grant from the government of India,” Sisodia said in a statement.
Last year, Delhi was provided the same amount of ₹325 crore as it share in central taxes.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the budget will lead to price rise across the country. “This budget will benefit to a few big companies. It will lead to price rise and more problems to the people,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi hours after the budget was announced.
Sisodia criticised the Bjp-led central government for not helping Delhi’s municipal corporations. “The BJP government at the Centre did not even give a single penny to the Bjp-ruled
MCDS, while it has given ₹2 lakh crore to other municipal corporations across the country. During the last MCD election in Delhi, BJP had said they will bring the money directly from the Centre to the MCD,” Sisodia said.
Slamming the Budget proposals and allocations, the deputy chief minister said the budget “completely bypasses” the education and health sectors, and “spells only doom” for the poor, middle class and farmers. At a time when there is farmer agitation happening all over the country, the agriculture budget has also been reduced, he said.
“The Union Budget has shockingly reduced the spending on education by 6% compared to last fiscal. It seems no lesson has been learnt from the coronavirus pandemic. History tells us that be it a family or the country, only those who invest in the education of their children become ‘atmanirbhar’ (self-reliant). Reducing expenditure on education by Rs 6,000 crore shows that the call for Atmanirbhar Bharat was merely a joke,” Sisodia said.
The Central government has decreased the allocation for the ministry of education by 6.13%. According to the finance minister’s speech, for 2021-22 a total amount of Rs 93,224 crore will be allocated to the education ministry. In 2020-21, the budget estimate for the ministry was ₹99,312 crore, which was revised to ₹85,089 crore.
Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said the Union budget will help make India self-reliant. “Special care has been taken in the budget about the health of the common man. Apart from this, soon people will start getting benefits of one nation, one ration card in the country,”