Delhi Budget: ₹8,600 crore for health, govt saving each life ‘Ram Rajya’

Atishi presented the 2024-25 budget with an outlay of ₹76,000 crore and said that the government is trying to realise the dream of “Ram Rajya”

The Delhi government has allocated ₹8,685 crore for the health sector in its 2024-25 budget with finance minister Atishi on Monday asserting that the national capital’s healthcare system has moved from “helplessness to strength” in nine years under the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation.

Delhi finance minister Atishi arrives at Vidhan Sabha to present the Budget on Monday. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

The allocation was lower than the ₹8,969 crore allocated for health sector schemes and spends for the current (2023-24) financial year, according to the revised estimates (RE) released in the budget documents on Monday. The RE -- an estimation of how much has been utilised --- was in itself lower than the ₹9.742 crore the administration initially set aside for the health sector in the 2023-24 budget.

Atishi presented the 2024-25 budget with an outlay of ₹76,000 crore and said that the government is trying to realise the dream of “Ram Rajya”. She said the second principle of “Ram Rajya” is curing every ailing person.

The minister then quoted a couplet from Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas and explained that it speaks for the good health of all.

“It is a matter of misfortune for our country that we are far away from this vision. Till 2014, even Delhi government-run hospitals were in a bad state. The filth at these hospitals would belie that even treatment could be offered there. It used to appear that if one went there with one disease, they would return with four diseases,” Atishi said.

Sharing details, Atishi said, “For the financial year 2024-25, I propose a budgetary outlay of ₹8,685 crore for the health sector.”She also highlighted how Delhi has changed under the AAP government.

Before the Kejriwal government assumed power, a family’s hard-earned money would get exhausted on treatment of its members at private hospitals. Situations also arose where people had to mortgage their home and precious jewels, Atishi said.

But the health sector has been beset by the feud the government has had with the lieutenant governor VK Saxena and the Union government. Payments for several allied purposes, such as rents for mohalla clinics and salaries of data operators employed at these clinics, were halted.