New Delhi, March 9: Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia onTuesday presented a Rs 69,000 crore Budget for 2021-22 in the Assembly, andsaid it was themed on "patriotism".
Sisodia claimed that this was the highest Budget of theDelhi government till date, which is 6 per cent higher than the previous years.Last year (2020-21), the annual Budget was Rs 65,000 crore.
Calling it a 'Deshbhakti' Budget, Sisodia said this was tomark the 75th anniversary of India's Independence in 2022.
He said the government has planned to hoist over 500 flagsacross the national capital much like the one at the central park, ConnaughtPlace.
With patriotism as the theme for year 2021-22, the Delhigovernment will spend Rs 10 crore for various programmes to be organised on thelife of B.R. Ambedkar. It also proposes to start patriotic programmes whichwill run for 75 weeks across the national capital.
Sisodia said the Delhi government is working to increase theper capita income of its citizens. "At present, Delhi's per capita incomeis 16 times lower in comparison to Singapore. We are working in this directionand setting a platform for increasing per capita income of Delhi by 16 times by2047," Sisodia said.
In other important allocations, Delhi government will openthe first Sainik school. "There are around 35 Sainik schools across thecountry, however, not a single Sainik school is in Delhi. Therefore, we havedecided to establish one Sainik school in Delhi," Sisodia added.
He said the Deshbhakti curriculum will also be started inall Delhi schools. He said, "There would one specific period forDeshbhakti curriculum in all schools."
For the Art and Culture department, the state governmentannounced to allocate Rs 521 crore.
The Finance Minister stated that Delhi is reaching close tothe target 11,000 DTC buses. At present, the total fleet of government buses is6,693. A 1,000 more DTC buses will be added soon. Apart from this, 300 electricbuses will also be added by next year.
While reading the Budget, Sisodia said that the Delhigovernment has taken progressive steps in reducing air pollution. For that thegovernment has initiated electric vehicles policy and is promoting the schemeaggressively. He said over 7,000 electric vehicles have been introduced inDelhi in the last six months.