Delhi Budget 2018 Highlights: Chief Minister Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in Delhi Assembly

Delhi Budget 2018 Highlights: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government has presented Rs 53,000 crore Delhi Budget 2018-19 in the Assembly. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia tabled the budget for the fourth time. The focus of the budget was expected to be centred on issues related to education, health, electricity, transport including Delhi metro and the pollution menace. On Wednesday, Sisodia presented AAP government’s maiden Outcome Budget 2017-18. It breaks down the performance of each major scheme and programme of the Delhi government into two kinds of indicators. While the first set is of Output indicators which details the services or infrastructure that government departments are required to be provided, the Outcome indicators show how the people actually benefitted from the scheme.

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Check Delhi Budget 2018 Highlights:

– Rs 53,000 crore budget for 2018-19 laid emphasis on environment, health, education and water.

– Sisodia said budget follows “trickle up” economic for the benefit of poor and middle-class people in Delhi. “The budget estimates for 2018-19 are pegged at Rs 53,000 crore which is 19.45 percent more than the revised budget estimates of Rs 44,370 crore for the previous financial year,” Sisodia said.

– First “Green budget” of the government for effective containment of pollution in the city. “We are going to thread 26 programmes and schemes of Transport, Power, Environment and PWD for devising a unified system of pollution control, bringing down levels of different pollutants,” he said.

– Rs 1000 crore set aside for repair and maintenance of smaller roads owned by the municipal corporations of the city.

-Delhi budget promises to open 30 new schools in the Capital. As many as 1.20 lakh CCTVs will be installed in Delhi schools.

– Good news! 1000 electric buses to be introduced in Delhi. This will be the biggest electric bus fleet in the world after China. For last mile connectivity, the budget has provision for 905 electric vehicle.

– Sisodia said the AAP government has “worked extensively on Education, Health, Electricity, Water, Minimum Wages, Skill etc. Budget has increased 1.5 times in the last three years. Per capita of Delhi income increased by 9.41% in 2017-18.”

– The ‘Green Budget’ has envisaged a 26-point programme. The 26 Points Programme under Delhi’s Green Budget include – 1. Carry out a real-time source appointment study of air pollution in Delhi; 2. Develop the first comprehensive city-wide inventory of greenhouse gas emissions in Delhi; 3. Increase in green coverage of Delhi in mission mode; 4. Make Delhi kikkar free; 5. New City Forests to be developed at Jaunapur, Ayanagar, Dera Mandi, Bela Farm, Garhi Mandu Pocket-A and Alipur

– 13% of the total budget being allocated to the three MCDs.

– Rs 1,000 Crore being earmarked for maintenance of roads & lanes which were supposed to be done by MCDs.

– Delhi government has termed Budget 2018 as “green budget”. It has provision for planting lakhs of trees in the national capital.

– As per the Outcome Budget report, a total of 8,603 students were admitted to 12 Delhi University colleges fully funded by the Delhi government as against 7,392 admitted in 2016-17. While 411 research papers were published in higher education institutions during 2017-18 (till December, 2017) under all colleges as against 524 research papers last year and 994 research papers were published during the period in technical education institutions as against 1,273 last year, reported PTI.

– Delhi Outcome Budget report, tabled on Wednesday, said a whopping one lakh teachers were trained until December, 2017 as against 47,000 teachers last year by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and District Institute of Education and Training (DIET). It added that the numbers included teachers availing training more than once.

Former AAP leader Kapil Mishra takes a sarcastic dig at Delhi Budget 2018. Watch video:

– Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken tweets: “When AAP Government will present their Budget at 12 Noon, I with the former cabinet ministers of @SheilaDikshit Govt will watch live from @INCDelhi Office! We will critically examine the Budget-put it live on Social Media-And compare it with Congress Govt when Sheila ji was CM!”

– The outcome budget 2018 data shows that the daily average ridership of the Delhi Metro dipped to 25.7 lakh, till December last. However, ridership of public transport buses operated by the city government has gone up to 41.90 lakh per day.

– The outcome budget 2018 also shows the positive impact of the Delhi government’s scheme for subsidy on power. It says over 82 per cent of domestic consumers has reportedly benefitted due to the scheme.