Delhi government’s outcome budget highlights improvement in healthcare and education

’More than 3 crore pink tickets distributed under the free bus travel scheme for women’

The Delhi government has inoculated 100% of the city’s eligible population with the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 90% with both doses, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said while presenting the outcome budget for the financial year 2021-22 on Friday.

The Delhi government started the practice of presenting the outcome budget five years ago, wherein it shares the status report on various projects and schemes introduced in the previous budget session. This budget is aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in budgeting, Mr. Sisodia said.

“The idea of the outcome budget is to let people know where the proposals introduced in the previous year’s budget stand and how it is benefitting the people of Delhi. Whether we were able to work on our promises or not. The Kejriwal government does not get stuck in files and rhetoric, it fulfills all its promises,’‘ he added.

In the health sector, Mr. Sisodia said 520 Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics have treated over 1.44 crore patients from April to December 2021 and that the average footfall in Mohalla clinics across Delhi is 60,000 patients per day. He added that the government has increased the number of hospital beds from 10,055 in 2019-20 to 13,844 beds in December 2021 across all the government hospitals.

The Minister, who also holds the Education portfolio, said the Delhi government had proposed building new classrooms in the last budget and has built 13,181 new rooms in government schools till December 2021.

The government started 20 new Schools of Specialized Excellence (SoSE), which now have a capacity of about 2,300 students. It also set up a new state board — the Delhi Board School Education (DBSE) — and tied it up with the International Baccalaureate (IB); 2,312 students will appear for the exams under DBSE next year.

In higher education, Mr. Sisodia said the government set up the Delhi Sports University, Delhi Teachers University and the Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University.