Budget focusses on health, education
The Delhi government will provide new tablets to all teachers, principals and vice-principals, besides setting up new computers in 350 schools in the national Capital in 2023-24.
The Delhi Budget presented by Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot on Wednesday allocated Rs 16,575 crore for the education department for the year 2023-24.
In the 2022-23 Delhi Budget, the education sector had received the highest allocation of Rs 16,278 crore.
Providing 20 new computers to each of the 350 schools under the Delhi government and teaching of French, German, Japanese and Spanish languages in Schools of Specialised Excellence are the highlights of Delhi’s Budget for the education sector.
The minister said more branches of the Ambedkar Schools of Specialised Education will come up in 2023. In 2021, there were 20 schools of specialised education, which will be increased to 37 in 2023.
Gahlot also announced that schools and industries will collaborate to develop professional skills for children at Schools of Applied Learning.
According to the Delhi government, around 56 students of the first batch of the Entrepreneurial Mindset Curriculum got direct admissions in the top seven universities of Delhi in courses such as BBA and B.Tech. The first batch of Delhi’s Model Virtual School got students from 14 different states across the nation, the minister said.
He further said that in the past eight years, 1,410 teachers, principals and educators were sent to Finland, Singapore and Cambridge by the Delhi government, 1,247 principals received training in IIM Ahmedabad and 61 principals in IIM Lucknow.
State-of-the-art sports complexes have been developed in the last five years, including the International Sports Complex in Kair (Najafgarh), Mundhela Sports Complex and the Pehladpur Sports Complex, Gahlot said. Projects in the pipeline include a wrestling hostel and relaying of synthetic tracks at the Chhatrasal Stadium, upgrading the Rajiv
Gandhi stadium and construction of a squash centre at the Thyagraj stadium, the minister said.
Delhi government has allocated Rs 9,742 crore to the health sector for the financial year 2023-24, a marginal decline from last year.
Tabling the budget, Gahlot informed that the number of free diagnostic tests in Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics
will increase from 256 to 450 this year. Last year, Rs 9,769 crore was allocated to the health sector.
The budget also proposes a plan to open 100 Mahila Mohalla Clinics, Gahlot said, adding nine new hospitals are being constructed in the city and four of them will get operational this year.
Delhi government’s free travel facility for women in state-run buses and pilgrimage scheme for senior citizens will continue for the financial year 2023-24.
The Delhi government allocated Rs 6,342 crore for water supply and sanitation in its Budget for the financial year 2023-24, which is around 16 per cent less than the Rs 7,610 crore earmarked last year.
Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot said water availability in the national Capital will be increased from 995 million gallons a day (MGD) to 1,240 MGD by March 2025.
