New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta presented the ruling BJP's budget - its first in Delhi in 28 years - with a "historic" Rs 1 lakh crore outlay and 10 'focus' areas, including cleaning the Yamuna, ensuring women's safety, and improving infrastructure.
Here are the top 10 points in this big story:
- "This is not an ordinary budget... it is the first step to develop Delhi, which was ruined over the past 10 years. Delhi went down in every aspect of development... previous governments ruined the economic health of the city like termites," Ms Gupta said.
- The Rs 1 lakh crore, she said, was 31.5 per cent more than last year, and included Rs 28,000 crore for capex, Rs 5,100 crore to fund the promised Rs 2,500 per month cash aid for eligible women, and Rs 40 crore for "modern gaushalas (cow shelters)".
- Accompanied to chants of "Modi, Modi" - and to 'sheeshmahal' jabs at predecessor Arvind Kejriwal - the budget included a 'common pass' for women on public buses. Plans to set up 50,000 CCTV cameras - to ensure women's safety - were also announced.
- There was also a provision of Rs 1,250 crore to clean up the Yamuna river. This included Rs 500 crore for a decentralised network of 40 sewage treatment plants, Rs 500 crore to repair and upgrade them, and Rs 250 crore to change old sewer lines. And Rs 9,000 crore has been set aside for filtration-related projects (for potable water) and sanitation.
- Plans for CM-SHRI schools - on the lines of the PM-SHRI, or Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India, institutions - were announced. These will be aligned with the new National Education Policy, over which there is a 'Hindi imposition' controversy in Tamil Nadu.
- As part of the overhaul of the education department, 1,200 students, she said, will receive laptops from the Delhi government. It is unclear what the selection criteria will be or if there will be benefits for other students too, but Rs 750 crore has been earmarked.
- Among other major plans, Rs 6,874 crore was set aside for healthcare infrastructure. This includes funds to expand the Ayushman Arogya Mandir initiative - a central measure to deliver preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative care, and of which the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, or PM-JAY, is also a component.
- "Soon people will get the benefit of Ayushman Yojana and Ayushman Arogya Mandir. In addition to the Rs 5 lakh (cover) from the centre, the Delhi government will give a top-up of Rs 5 lakh..." she said, noting that Rs 2,144 crore had been allocated for this.
- Her government, Ms Gupta said, had also allocated Rs 696 crore for the development of slum clusters and a further Rs 100 crore to set up 100 Atal Canteens to feed the poor.
- She also announced Rs 300 crore to combat the city's annual pollution and air quality crisis. Every winter the air quality in the city plummets - in many cases to well over 500 (and that's because the scale doesn't extend beyond an AQI of 500) - as a result of adverse weather conditions and the smoke rising from farm fires in surrounding states, as well as smoke and aerial pollutants from traffic and construction work in Delhi.
With input from agencies
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