Over two-thirds of growth objectives on track: Delhi minister Kailash Gahlot

The assessment, which Gahlot said was a first for any Indian state or Union territory, was based across 1,136 indicators of performance. These indicators were divided into “on track” and “off track”, with the final on-track figure representing how various departments performed in respect to the allocated funds under the last annual Budget

New Delhi

Delhi finance minister Kailash Gahlot speaks during the Budget Session of the Delhi assembly on Monday. (ANI)

The Public Works Department, the Delhi government’s main civic works wing, and the education department have more than two-thirds of their objectives on track, and the number is over 50% for the health department, Delhi’s finance minister Kailash Gahlot said on Monday, presenting an “outcome budget” that took stock of the Aam Aadmi Party government’s performance.

The assessment, which Gahlot said was a first for any Indian state or Union territory, was based across 1,136 indicators of performance. These indicators were divided into “on track” and “off track”, with the final on-track figure representing how various departments performed in respect to the allocated funds under the last annual Budget.

“Outcome budget is a unique system to track the status of the Budget promises… It effectively monitors the progress of the schemes regularly. Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi has created a dashboard for real-time monitoring of the projects under outcome budget,” added Gahlot, who took charge of the finance ministry on March 2 following the resignation of Manish Sisodia after the latter’s arrest last month by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The outcome budget defined outcome as “depicting the extent to which people of the NCT of Delhi have benefitted from public infrastructure or services delivered in the short term”.

According to the data disclosed by Gahlot in the assembly, the education department had 67% of its projects on track, while the environment department had 73%, the health department 54%, the transport department 69%, the Delhi Jal Board 66% and the women and child development department 71% of its indicators met, according to the outcome budget document released by the administration.

Gahlot highlighted some of the key achievements in these areas. For health, for instance, he said a total of 15 million patients had been treated at the Aam Aadmi Mohalla clinics in the nine months till December 31, 2022. For education, he highlighted a pass percentage of 98% in the 12th standard and 97% at the 10th standard.

But there appeared to be some lack of clarity on how these indicators compared to the past. In the 2022-23 budget, the AAP government announced that it will give 2 million jobs in the next five years, or an average of 400,000 jobs in a year. The outcome report from directorate of employment said that 75% of its indicators were on track, but it did not specify how many jobs had been created.

“A total of 1.5 million job seekers have registered on Rozgar Bazar portal so far since its operationalisation on July 27, 2020. 5,455 employers have registered on the portal from April 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 and posted 49,816 active job vacancies,” the outcome budget said.

A Delhi government official did not share any information on this but, to be sure, there is a likelihood that such efforts could create long-term improvements on the hobs front.

On the environment department performance, the minister said: “100% of industries in Delhi are equipped with Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS), 1.8 million saplings have been planted in the forest area, 75% of complaints were resolved within the prescribed time period under Green Delhi App for violation of anti-pollution norms, and modern lab for real-time identification of different causes of pollution has been established in collaboration with IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi and TERI,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, termed the outcome budget another attempt to hoodwink the public, and a white lie. “Last year, the Kejriwal government presented the employment budget with a lot of fanfare and claimed that 2 million jobs would be provided in Delhi in the next five years. Although no action plan was presented for this, it was said that five markets — Kamla Nagar, Khali Baoli, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, and Kirti Nagar — would be rejuvenated which would generate employment. The BJP had then expressed doubt about the announcements of the government. The government should have said in the outcome budget that Delhi government stands at zero in all these announcements. No work has been done on these schemes,” Bidhuri said.

Responding to the criticism, a Delhi government official said the creation of 2 million jobs was a five-year exercise. “The jobs have to be created through various enterprises by different departments. The works are at various stages of progress. The development of markets needed cooperation from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Since the BJP was running the MCD, AAP government could not get them to cooperate and the speed of the work suffered,” said a Delhi government official, asking not to be named.