Delhi Budget 2025: CM Rekha Gupta presents Rs 1 lakh crore budget, slams AAP for ‘fooling people’
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday presented a Rs 1 lakh crore budget for 2025-26, saying it was a visionary budget for the development of the national capital.
“Today is a historic day. This is not a normal budget. The people of Delhi and the entire country are listening to this budget session. Our budget is based on the principles of PM Narendra Modi’s Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas,” Gupta, who holds the finance portfolio, said, presenting her first budget in the Delhi Assembly.
Taking potshots at the previous Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for “fooling the people” of Delhi, Gupta said, “In the last 10 years, the condition of Delhi has been continuously deteriorating. From DTC [Delhi Transport Corporation], DUSIB [Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board], dirty water, sewer, broken roads… all these had become the face of Delhi under the previous government.”
“Delhi’s infrastructure is in a poor condition. There was a time when Dilli ka malik (referring to Kejriwal) promised to convert Delhi into London. But those promises remained on hoardings, advertisements,” Gupta said.
“All the departments were in a loss during the previous government regime. For the first time, the budget outlay dropped to Rs 76,000 crore from Rs 78,000 crore under the previous AAP regime. But the Delhi government’s budget this year is going to be Rs 1 lakh crore. This year’s budget will see a 31.5 per cent hike as compared to the previous budget,” Gupta said, announcing that capital expenditure in the current budget has gone up from Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 28,000 crore this year.
The chief minister allocated Rs 5,100 crore for the Mahila Samruddhi Scheme.
“While the previous government did not implement the central government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme for years, we passed the scheme in the very first Cabinet meeting. Delhi government has allocated Rs 2,144 crore for giving an additional Rs 5 lakh insurance to people under the Ayushman Bharat scheme,” Gupta said.
She added that special schemes will be started for traders in the city. “Delhi was once a centre of trading and business but the traders went into debt in the last 10 years. For the welfare of traders and to make Delhi a business hub, the BJP government under the PM’s Make in India scheme will create a roadmap to make Delhi a start-up hub. It will bring a new industry scheme,” she said.
Gupta also announced a single window system for business start-ups and small industries. “Traders are running towards NCR cities because the industrial areas in Delhi are in poor condition. To redevelop the industrial areas, we will establish a traders welfare board. We will also hold a global investment summit in Delhi. The summit will be held in Delhi every two years,” she said.
From allocating funds for improving roads and flyovers to installing thousands of CCTV cameras for women’s safety, Gupta made several announcements on Tuesday:
* Rs 1,000 crore allocated for connectivity of roads, improvement of roads
* 50,000 CCTV cameras to be installed for women’s safety
* Rs 3,800 crore allocated for flyovers and infrastructure
* Rs 3,843 crore allocated for road improvement and development
* Rs 1,400 crore allocated under the CM’s road development fund
* Rs 697 crore allocated for DUSIB for development of JJ clusters and slums
* Rs 9,000 crore allocated for sewers, water and cleaning of Yamuna.
