**New Delhi:** Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday presented the fifth Budget of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Assembly proposing a total expenditure of Rs 60,000 crore by the Delhi Government in 2019-2020.
Sisodia, in his budget speech, dedicated the Budget to soldiers, including those martyred in the Pulwama attack, and their families.
“The Budget is to fulfil the dreams of the martyrs and to the soldiers and their families and their welfare,” he said.
Sisodia said the Budget estimates for 2019-20 is Rs 60,000 crore, which is double of the 2014-15 budget.
“Delhi is a financially self-dependant state which generates 95 per cent of its resources by itself and does not depend on any financial assistance from outside,” he said.
The city Budget was of Rs 53,000 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 44,370 crore for 2017-18.
In the current proposed Budget, education again gets the highest allocation with 26 per cent.
“Our government has, since starting, kept about one-fourth of its Budget for education,” he said.
He also said that the share of the transport sector has been doubled in 2019-20.
“Rs 1,807 crore has been kept in the financial year 2019-20 for implementation of various schemes, programmes and projects of public transport which is nearly double than the revised estimates of 2018-19,” he said.
The Budget also allocated Rs 100 crore for implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendation of higher minimum support price for crops, he said.
“Delhi government will implement the recommendation of the report. Rs 100 crore has been kept for this in the Budget for 2019-20,” he said.
Speaking about the plight of the farmers in his speech, Sisodia said: “When the country was ruled by the British, the farmers had not committed suicides. But when the county is heading towards development, the farmers are committing suicide in the 21st century.”
Pointing out that the Aam Aadmi Party’s is the first government to implement the recommendations, he said despite being presented in 2006, no government in the county has implemented the Swaminathan Report.
Last week, the Delhi government conceptualised the implementation of recommendations of the report of Swaminathan Committee on farmers after about a month-long discussion with stakeholders.
The recommendations will be launched under the “Mukhya Mantri Kisan Mitra Yojna”.
Under the proposed schemes, the minimum support price (MSP) with 50 per cent margin at the cost of production is likely to be Rs 2,616 per quintal for wheat and Rs 2,667 quintal for paddy, an official told IANS.
“The proposed MSP structure is higher than the government of India MSP by Rs 776 per quintal for wheat and Rs 897 per quintal for paddy,” he said.
The Development Department has calculated that the government will have to incur an additional liability of Rs 96.38 crore at this MSP.
Sisodia also said that the Delhi government will launch a new scheme “Smart Krishi Yojana”, under which the farmers will be provided knowledge of technology for high yielding and high quality variety for agriculture crops, so that farmers can enhance their income.
(IANS)
