Delhi Assembly Passes 'Green' Budget 2018-19

New Delhi: The Delhi assembly Tuesday passed the Rs 53,000 crore budget for 2018-19, with a major thrust on green initiatives to combat rising air pollution levels in the national capital.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia asserted that the budget has taken care of all sections of the society.

Under the budget, the AAP-led city government has announced installation of CCTV cameras in schools and providing self-defence training for girl students, besides allocating Rs 100 crore for free Wi-Fi and installation of 1.2 lakh CCTV cameras in the city by June next year.

The budget was passed with voice vote in the House.

It also promised implementation of doorstep delivery of government services by June 15. An amount of Rs 1,500 crore was sanctioned for infrastructure development in unauthorised colonies.

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Talking about the budget, Mr Sisodia had on March 22 termed it a "green budget" for effective containment of pollution in the city.

However, Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta said, "The Centre liberally contributed to the development of Delhi and betterment of Delhiites notwithstanding the fact that the AAP government left no stone unturned in condemning the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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"Though, the Kejriwal government strongly condemned the GST, it has benefited the most in terms of revenue collection which has gone up by 19 per cent during 2017-18. The national capital is going to collect an additional revenue of Rs 4,750 crore," he said during a discussion on the budget.

The BJP leader also said that the central government was directly making a contribution of Rs 16,000 crore to the Delhi government's revenue.

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"The Centre is giving Rs 4,432 crore as central assistance, Rs 325 crore as grant-in-aid in lieu of central taxes, and Rs 3,750 crore as pension and Government Provident Fund (GPF)," Mr Gupta added.