From double-decker flyovers, electrified bus depots and clearing the city’s landfills, Delhi’s new finance minister Kailash Gahlot presented a Rs 78,800-crore budget for 2023-24, titled “Saaf, Sundar aur Adhunik Dilli” (clean, beautiful and modern Delhi) on Tuesday, as the day-long impasse with the BJP-ruled Centre ended. The budget outlines a major push for infrastructure projects that are linked to reducing air pollution in the national capital. It comes at a time when the G20 summit is to be held in the city for which the Centre is preparing in a big way. There is a slight decrease in outlays for health, transport and social welfare from last year. The 2022-23 budget was of Rs 75,800 crore.
While it was Gahlot’s first, this was the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government’s ninth budget presentation. Even though improving infrastructure is the major focus area of this year’s budget, education and health, which have been AAP’s major thrust since the party came to power in 2015, have received the highest budgetary outlays just like previous years. The last eight theme-based budgets were presented by former finance minister Manish Sisodia, who is currently in the custody of central investigating agencies.
Here are the five key takeaways from the 2023-24 Delhi budget:
Major push on improving infra, back to basics
Dedicating the budget to Sisodia and to a clean, beautiful and modern Delhi ahead of the G20 summit, Gahlot said that this year, the major focus would be on improving the city’s infrastructure. “These are essential for us to curb pollution, reduce traffic congestion, effectively tackle waste and modernise the city,” the minister said in his speech. He proposed three new double-decker flyovers to be constructed, 26 new flyovers, electrification of 57 existing bus depots, new underpasses and induction of 100 new electric buses. Rs 2,024 crore will be spent on upgrading 1,400 km of roads, and Rs 19,466 crore for maintenance of roads for ten years. This is the first budget by the AAP government, which focuses on this aspect.
Compared to last year’s Rozgar budget, which aimed to generate employment avenues in the city, this budget’s main focus is on improving the fundamentals. This is mainly for the upcoming G20 summit to be hosted in Delhi, which requires the city to don a clean and modern look and for the Delhi government to claim credit for it. Also, the city’s infrastructure needs a major boost, with air pollution and reducing massive vehicular load becoming key political issues over the past few years.
Education gets biggest slice, followed by health yet again
By allocating Rs 16,575 crore to education for 2023-24, the highest outlay for a sector, the AAP-led Delhi government has again sent a message to the citizens on it being committed to the cause. Last year too, education received the highest share of Rs 16,278 crore. With Sisodia, also holding the education portfolio, being arrested on corruption charges in the city excise policy, his education advisor and the brains behind the reforms, Atishi, was recently inducted into the cabinet as his successor.
While Rs 9,742 crore has been allocated to the health sector, a marginal drop from Rs 9,769 crore last year, it still is the second-highest allocation in the budget. With major reforms in Delhi government schools and health facilities in the city, pitched as the “Delhi model”, the budgetary allocations make it clear that this is going to remain the party’s major thrust over the years, especially, in 2023-24, which are election years, both in several states as well as Lok Sabha polls due next year. The party has been trying to expand its national footprint since the electoral gains made by it in the Gujarat polls.
Big promise on clearing city landfills by 2024
While presenting the state budget, Gahlot said that local bodies will be given financial assistance of Rs 8,241 crore in the financial year 2023-24. He announced that the city’s three major landfills — Bhalaswa, Ghazipur and Okhla — will be cleared by March 2024, December 2024, and December 2023, respectively. A loan of Rs 850 crore has been earmarked for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for the removal of garbage. AAP won the MCD polls last December, ending the 15-year-long rule of the BJP in the civic bodies. Prior to this, AAP and BJP used to be locked in a bitter battle over the paucity of civic funds, with the latter accusing the Delhi government of not releasing the money due and hence crippling development works. The Centre had tasked the MCD to cap the landfills by 2024 with the Delhi lieutenant governor (L-G) making regular visits to the sites to take stock of the work. The target of clearing landfills by 2024, if achieved, will be a major milestone for AAP, as the BJP-ruled MCD had been dragging its feet on this for more than a decade.
Focus back on combatting air pollution
Gahlot while elaborating on the theme of this year’s budget, spoke about reducing vehicular emissions and providing clean air to citizens, bringing back the focus on cutting down air pollution in the capital, which has been grappling with major smog episodes during winter and high levels of pollution throughout the year. In 2018, Sisodia presented a ‘green budget’, which focused on fighting pollution, as Delhi’s bad air became a central political and environmental issue. Crediting people for contributing to reducing pollution levels to some extent, the minister promised a new anti-pollution war plan for the city with a localised approach, including setting up real-time pollution data labs in each district and planting 52 lakh trees.
Cleaning Yamuna, Delhi’s lifeline, back on agenda
The six-point action plan to clean the river Yamuna, which has been reduced almost to a drain over the years, has been brought back on the agenda. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had in 2021 rolled out the same six-point plan with an aim to clean the river by 2025. The points have again been presented in the budget speech, which includes sewer connectivity to up to 100% of households, shifting out of polluting industrial units and upgradation of STPs and CEDSTPs, among others. It comes at a time when the Delhi L-G, who is appointed by the Centre, has taken up Yamuna cleaning on the agenda with central agencies like the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) being tasked with restoring the river’s floodplains and creating a riverfront.
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