Manish Sisodia presents 7th Budget in Delhi Assembly, Congress leader urges government to keep welfare of people first

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New Delhi: The AAP-led Delhi government on Monday (March 8) presented its seventh Outcome Budget on the first day of the Delhi Assembly’s budget session for 2021-22.

The Budget Session started from Monday with an address by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal. The Session is scheduled to be held from March 8 to March 16, 2021.

While presenting the budget, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government highlighted the achievements for the year in Education, Health, Transport, Revenue and Food departments.

Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister, who also handles the Finance portfolio, presented the fourth outcome budget and economic survey. He said, "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."

Sisodia highlighted that at the time of lockdown, the Delhi government had launched the series of ‘Parenting in the time of Corona’ in which over 98 percent students received worksheets and  90 percent of students of classes 11th and 12th attended online classes. 

Additionally, the state government said it mitigated basic inequalities which were the result of COVID-19 pandemic and the government set up as many as 1,914 hunger relief centers at the government-run schools for over three months.

While highlighting the amenities provided to the public during this difficult time, the state government stated that cooked meals were distributed at these centres twice a day, benefiting over 10 lakh people. 

Adding to this, the Kejriwal-led AAP government also set-up 260 night shelters, booked 252 trains for migrant workers and provided an ex-gratia relief amount of Rs 1 crore to each of the families of 9 frontline workers who died due to Covid-19.

Sisodia also stated that the Delhi government had implemented a comprehensive COVID-19 response strategy to control the sudden upsurge in COVID-19 cases in the national capital. He said that Covid-19 tests of 87.8 lakh people were done in the national capital.

To ensure an adequate number of beds and better health facilities for COVID-19 patients, the state government had also arranged for additional 27,873 beds in all government hospitals.

Not only was the state providing one of the best COVID-19 treatments in the country but was also the first to experiment with plasma therapy, he said.

To put a band-aid on the burn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 65 percent of Delhi's population were provided free food grains to help them at the much needed time.

Manish Sisodia also highlighted the achievements of the labour department, said the house that construction workers who lost their livelihoods during the pandemic were also provided special assistance, also financial aid to 44,683 construction workers who registered under the Delhi government`s Construction Workers Welfare Board was provided. 

Deputy CM also proudly highlighted that to curb pollution and make Delhi a clean and green city, Delhi government also launched the electric vehicle policy.

"The outcome budget has become an integral part of the governance system and helps the government to rank all departments on the basis of their performance. The departments are now more proactive and work in a more target oriented approach, which gives better results," concluded Sisodia.

Meanwhile, while addressing a press conference here on Monday, former MLA and Delhi Congress leader Adarsh Shastri urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia, to keep the welfare of the people uppermost in mind while presenting the Delhi Budget on Tuesday. The Congress appealed to the Delhi government for free Covid vaccination to all, unemployment allowance to the youth and reduction in the Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel prices.