Education, health to be given highest allocation in Budget

The two sectors have been the major focus points of the Aam Aadmi Party government, with the last year’s ₹75,800 crore budget seeing a 22% outlay for education, and 13% for the health sector

New Delhi

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday inaugurated the Dr BR Ambedkar School of Specialised Excellence in Rohini . (HT PHOTO)

The education and health sectors are likely to again get the highest allocation in the Delhi government’s upcoming Budget for the 2023-24 financial year, officials aware of the matter said on Sunday.

The two sectors have been the major focus points of the Aam Aadmi Party government, with the last year’s ₹75,800 crore budget seeing a 22% outlay for education, and 13% for the health sector.

A Delhi government official said that Budget 2023-24 — likely to be presented in the Assembly on Tuesday — will, in the education sector , is likely to include allocations for projects such as expansion of schools of specialised excellence, providing computer tablets to teachers and principals of government schools, and improvement of the educational infrastructure of civic body schools.

Similarly, in the health sector, the government plans to increase the number of free tests at Mohalla clinics, expansion of number of beds in government hospitals as well as construction of new hospitals, added the official, who wished not to be named.

“Both these sectors will continue to get the highest allocation in 2023-24 as well. There were 20 Dr Ambedkar Schools of Specialised Excellence (SoSE) when they were started in 2021. This will now increase to 37 in the coming year, and will have a capacity of about 10,000 students. Similarly, we plan to provide new tablets to all teachers, vice principals and principals of Delhi government schools,” the official said. The computer tablet project is likely to cover all regular, guest and contractual teachers, according to the official.

The schools of specialised excellence focus on science, technology, mathematics and skill development — or STEM subjects. On Sunday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated one such school in Rohini.

Further, the government schools from now on will work closely with the civic body’s feeder schools to improve foundational skills of children. According to an economic survey conducted last year, the Delhi government’s directorate of education manages a total of 1,053 government schools and 204 government-aided schools, which altogether enrol about 1800,000 students and 70,111 teachers. Similarly, the municipal corporation of Delhi (MCD) runs 1,535 primary schools which have 874,000 students and 17,600 teachers.

Under the health sector, the official said, the government plans to increase the number of free test facilities at Mohalla clinics to 450 from the current 250 tests.

“An expansion plan is also underway to increase the number of beds in Delhi government hospitals to 30,000 from 14,200 at present. Construction of nine new hospitals is already underway, and four of these are expected to be inaugurated next year. Besides, expansion of 15 existing hospitals, including Chacha Nehru Bal Vidyalaya, GTB, will be taken up in the Budget,” the official said.

Delhi’s five-day Budget session began on Friday last week with lieutenant governor VK Saxena’s speech highlighting the government’s achievements last year. The House will resume on Monday at 11am, where the government is likely to table the economic survey report and the Outcome Budget, which is an assessment of the government’s performance in key sectors.

Newly sworn-in finance minister Kailash Gahlot is expected to present the Budget on Tuesday.

Gahlot has replaced Manish Sisodia as the Delhi finance minister, and this will be the first time that the latter will not present the Budget since 2015, when the AAP first stormed to power in Delhi. Sisodia resigned after he was arrested last month amid the ongoing probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation against him into alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy 2021-22.