Delhi clears ₹65K-crore budget; to implement Ayushman Bharat
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Assembly passed a ₹65,000-crore budget for the 2020-21 financial year on Monday, with an emphasis on the education, health and transport sectors.
In the budget presented in the House by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government set aside ₹50 crore to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
Presenting the budget for the sixth consecutive time in the Assembly, Sisodia said the Delhi government will implement the Ayushman Bharat Yojana of the Centre in the national capital.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been accusing the Arvind Kejriwal government of stalling the scheme and depriving the people of Delhi of its benefits.
This was the first budget of the AAP government after it was re-elected to power with a thumping majority last month.
Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio, said the per capita income of Delhi had increased by 44 per cent over the last five yea₹.
The budget focussed on the
n education and health secto₹, which the deputy chief minister said were important areas in the Kejriwal model of governance.
Presenting the budget in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Sisodia said digital classrooms will be set up in each government school and an amount of ₹100 crore was set aside for the purpose.
The deputy chief minister, who also holds the education portfolio, proposed 145 new schools of excellence in the budget.
“By 2024, we will establish Delhi on the world’s education map,” he asserted.
The health sector was allocated ₹7,704 crore for the next financial year. The government set aside ₹ 724 crore for new hospitals and ₹ 365 crore for setting up new mohalla clinics and polyclinics.sisodia said the Kejriwal model of governance was centred around elements of economics and people’s welfare, pointing towards empowerment of women through free rides in public transport buses.
The free-bus-ride scheme for women will continue in the next financial year, he added.
The budget allocated ₹1,700 crore for providing basic facilities in the unauthorised colonies of the national capital.”under the Kejriwal model of governance, the chief minister has guaranteed the largest and cheapest public transport system in Delhi.
“Under this, the government has a target to have a fleet of 11,000 buses and to lay metro lines for 500 kms,” Sisodia said.
In view of a land crunch, the government will convert its four bus depots into multi-storey buildings to accommodate more buses, he added.
The city government will also run a “Campaign for Communal Harmony” across the national capital, Sisodia said while unde₹coring its importance in the wake of last month’s communal violence in northeast Delhi.