By Prarthana Mitra
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) aims to bring development to each household, said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday as he announced the Rs 53,000-crore budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Kejriwal emphasised that key focus areas of the budget included health and education, along with a renewed focus on improving environmental conditions, sewage and water facilities, and road infrastructure in the city.
We reduced raid culture, had faith in our traders, reduced tax leakages and have managed to increase our budget estimate by over Rs 20,000 crore, Kejriwal told reporters after the budget announcement.
“Green budget”
Kejriwal said this budget would be the first “green budget” and unveiled 26 actionable measures to reduce pollution in the national capital that has been continually experiencing dangerous levels of air pollution and smog. To improve the citys air quality, the AAP government has sought the lieutenant governors support in adhering to the proposed timeline for some of the important schemes and projects, which will be reviewed weekly by the chief secretary.
Further, to reduce the citys dependence on fossil fuel, the government has proposed renewable energy initiatives by providing industries with incentives to opt for natural gas, farmers to install solar panels and subsidies if they switch to clean fuel-based power generators. The provision of a fleet of 1,000 electric buses has also been proposed, along with subsidisation of electric and CNG cars and e-rickshaws.
Education and Infrastructure
Education accounts for 26% of the budget allocation and includes a provision to build 30 schools by 2019. The government has also proposed to launch a universal health insurance scheme with an outlay of Rs100 crore. A committee will be grafting the guidelines of the insurance scheme.
AAPs budget has also allocated Rs 1,500 crore for numerous development programmes in unauthorised colonies. These colonies play a pivotal role in deciding the fate of political parties during election season. “We will make roads to every house including in unauthorised colonies, Kejriwal said.
Other key takeaways
The government has also sequestered funds for installing surveillance cameras in schools and providing self-defence training to girls and women. Another Rs 100 crore has been set aside to fulfil an old pre-election promise of making Delhi a free-Wi-Fi city by June 2019.