NEW DELHI: A day before presenting the Delhi Budget 2021-22, the AAP government on Monday laid out its fourth ‘Outcome Budget’ detailing performance over the past year in projects implemented and public money spent. Using indicators from each department, the AAP government presented an account of its achievements showing a majority of these schemes are “on-track”. The outcome budget covered 2,113 indicators of 595 schemes of major government departments with education, health, PWD and environment departments emerging as the top performers.
With the pandemic causing great disruption to the socio-economic activities, the Delhi government’s revenue collection “nose-dived” halting routine activities and affecting the progress and achievements of targets, said Delhi Deputy CM and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia in the Assembly. “The year 2020-21 started in the shadow of the pandemic and a strict lockdown that brought all socio-economic activities to a halt,” said the report. Highlighting the AAP government’s response to the pandemic, the outcome budget says it ensured testing of 87.8 lakh citizens and provided 27,873 COVID beds, twice the number available compared to actual occupancy at all times.
As Covid-19 necessitated online classes for all students, the Delhi government launched ‘Parenting in the time of Corona’ where Delhi Government was able to send worksheets through SMS and IVR. “98% of our students received worksheets while 89-90% of students in 11th and 12th grade attended online classes. Overall, we extended educational activities to 229 days whereas a normal session lasts for 220 days” added Sisodia, who is also the education minister of Delhi.
The copy of the Outcome Budget has the picture of the Signature Bridge on the cover showcasing a landmark road infrastructure achievement of the AAP government after years of construction and delays.
Started by the AAP government in 2017-18, the Outcome Budget is kind of a report card which the government says promotes transparency in governance and presents the real picture of the progress made by the government on the ground and not just on paper to the taxpayers.
“Delhi government is the only state government that makes suo-moto disclosure of its performance to promote transparency and accountability in public spending. The outcome budget is a report card on how various departments have performed based on the funds allocated under Annual Budget 2020-21” said Sisodia.
The Outcome Budget breaks down the performance of each major scheme into two indicators: output indicators, services or infrastructure which the government departments are required to provide and outcome indicators, which indicate how people have benefitted from a scheme.According to government sources, after coming up with ‘Swaraj Budget’ and ‘Green budget’ earlier, this year’s budget is likely to be themed as “Deshbhakti Budget” promoting patriotic values.
Sisodia to read ‘e-budget’ from tablet
Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia will present the Delhi Budget 2021-22 on Tuesday. There will be no paper copies of the budget and Sisodia will read it on a tablet. All MLAs sitting in the House will also be given tabs to read the budget
