Education, Health Get Lion's Share in Delhi's Rs.41,129 Crore Budget

Education, Health Get Lion's Share in Delhi's Rs.41,129 Crore Budget

NEW DELHI: The AAP government in Delhi on Thursday made it clear that health, education and transport were the key areas it has focussed on in its Rs.41,129 crore budget for the 2015-16 financial year. In its maiden full budget, tabled by state Finance Minister Manish Sisodia, the Aam Aadmi Party government allocated Rs.9,836 crore to education. "We did what we promised. This is a budget of the poor and middle class people," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.

EDUCATION

  • The education budget was hiked by 106 percent.
  • Rs.9,836 crore allocated to education -- more than double the amount earmarked during the previous fiscal
  • While 50 schools will be developed as model schools, 236 new schools have been planned
  • The government will recruit 20,000 regular teachers by the end of this year to improve the student-teacher ratio

HEALTH

  • Rs.4,787 crore for it earmarked to health -- 45 percent more than the previous year's allocation.
  • The government plans to remodel and upgrade 11 existing hospitals, which will add 4,000 more beds in the next two years.
  • It will also set up 500 "neighbourhood clinics" in all parts of Delhi in the financial year.
  • Transport gets Rs.5,085 crore -- 23 percent more than the allocation of 2014-15.
  • The budget proposes to procure 10,000 buses of various specifications.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

  • Though the government did not increase Value Added Tax (VAT), it hiked the luxury and entertainment tax.
  • A total of Rs.253 crore has been set aside for the Swaraj Fund which enables people to prioritise implementation of programmes selected by them for the development of their area.
  • A total of Rs.1,690 crore has been set aside for power and water subsidy, a key AAP promise to the electorate.
  • Of the Rs.41,129 crore, Rs.19,000 crore was for plan expenditure, Rs.22,129 crore is for non-plan expenditure. In the previous 2014-15 fiscal when Delhi was under President's Rule, union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had presented a Rs.36,776 crore budget.

"This is a first participatory budget in the the country, where people have made the budget," Sisodia said.

He said people from 11 of the 70 constituencies were consulted for drafting the budget.

Sisodia said the huge allocation for education showed that the AAP government was serious in improving educational standards in the capital.

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