Ahead of Assembly polls, Delhi govt allocates more funds for civic work

The Delhi Assembly on the last day of its winter session on Wednesday passed several supplementary demands for grants for the current financial year (2024-25) including the Delhi Metro Phase IV project, road repair, installation of CCTV cameras, among others.

The supplementary demands as per the revised budget estimates of 2024-25 were presented in the Assembly by the Chief Minister Atishi and were passed by the members with voice votes.

The Delhi government has made an additional allocation of more than Rs 2,500 crore under capital heads in the revised estimates of 2024-25 for various civic and welfare schemes and programmes ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls due in February next year.

An additional amount of Rs 1,648.72 crore is allocated in the revised estimates for 2024-25 for ongoing works of Delhi Metro's Phase-IV. Also, a provision of Rs 951 crore was kept in the revised estimates for repayment of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan, the documents showed.

The budget estimates for 2024-25 at Rs 76,000 crore were enhanced to Rs 77,700 crore in revised estimates for 2024-25.

For the Delhi-SNB corridor and Delhi-Panipat corridor of the Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS), an additional amount of Rs 100 crore is kept in the revised estimates. Provision of Rs 140 crore for electric vehicle policy, Rs 2,985 crore for DTC salary and other expenses were part of revised estimates for the Transport department.

An additional fund of Rs 124 crore is allocated for the construction of school building projects. Also, Rs 50 crore was allocated in revised estimates for the construction of additional classrooms.

The revised estimates allocated a fund of Rs 1,900 crore under the Scheme "Loans to DJB for Ways and Means Support" to meet the routine revenue expenditure of the agency.

The revised estimates allocated Rs 400 crore under the MLA Local Area Development Fund to accommodate the increase in the limit per Assembly constituency per annum to Rs 15 crore, the documents showed.

Further, an additional fund of Rs 100 crore was allocated in the revised estimates for remodelling of existing hospitals and Rs 45 crore for medical facilities to pensioners.

The revised estimates included an additional Rs 75 crore for strengthening and resurfacing of PWD Roads, Rs 64 crore against a budget estimate of Rs 20 crore for anti-pollution measures and a revised outlay of power subsidy increased by Rs 350 crore.