AAP to give priority to education, health, transport & PWD in Budget

The AAP government is all set to accord top priority to health, education, transport and public works department in its Budget for 2016-17. A home department proposal to allocate Rs 600 crore for purchase of CCTV cameras and Rs 150 crore for setting up streetlights at dark spots is also under active consideration. The administration is also in the process of identifying 21 Assembly constituencies to seek inputs from citizens for its second “Swaraj Budget.” In the 2015-16 Budget, the AAP government had allocated largest amount of Rs 9,836 crore for education, an increase of 106 per cent over the previous budget. The health sector had received second highest allocation of Rs 4,787 crore, followed by transport with Rs 5,085 crore, which is 23 per cent more than the allocation of 2014-15. In all, 11 Assembly segments from where the AAP government had directly sought inputs from citizens, allocation of Rs 20 crore for each segment was made as a pilot under the Swaraj Fund. For the remaining 59 seats, an amount of Rs 50 lakh each was proposed. This time, in addition to these 11 constituencies, the AAP government may take inputs from people in 10 more Assembly segments.

The AAP government, which has time and again been demanding additional annual budgetary allocation of Rs 5,000 crore from the Centre, has itself been able to spend only 49.58 per cent of the total money it had allocated in its Budget for the current financial year. The Kejriwal government, which had allocated Rs 41,129 crore for 2015-16 financial year, had earmarked a sum of Rs 19,000 crore for planned projects.

Of the planned funds, the AAP government till January 31 ended up spending just 46.38 per cent on education, 40.56 per cent on medical institutions and 61.81 per cent on public health. In all, the government was able to spend only 49.58 per cent of the total plan expenditure till January 31. A city bureaucrat said all the planned funds could not be exhausted as the AAP government was not “mindlessly spending” on several projects. “We are holding people accountable for each and every penny. You can say we are saving the taxpayers’ money.”

Reports related to plan expenditure show that the AAP government was able to spend just 5.97 per cent of the total Budget it had allocated for civil supplies and a mere 6.05 per cent of the money it had allocated for the tourism sector. In the labour and labour welfare schemes, the AAP government could end up spending 19.65 per cent of the total planned expenditure till January 31. In agriculture and allied services and secretariat economic services, the AAP government ended up spending 24.84 per cent and 24.20 per cent respectively. As far as science, technology and environment is concerned, only 26.01 per cent of the total amount was spent. On other administrative services, the expenditure was as low as 27.99 per cent.

Among the sectors where the government was able to spend substantial amount of funds are housing (91.22 per cent), public works (70.96 per cent), transport (60.39 per cent), social welfare (73.09 per cent) and women and child welfare (61.28 per cent).

Sectors where the government has been able to spend more than 50 per cent of the total plan expenditure are sports and youth services, water supply and sanitation, urban development, welfare of SC/ST/OBC/ minorities and jails.

Other key sectors where the administration has not been able to spend much are rural development (30.15 per cent), industries (39.47 per cent), technical education (32.04 per cent) and art and culture (32.50 per cent). Reports suggest that the AAP government was able to spend 43.29 per cent of the total plan expenditure till December. While the city government was able to spend 80.20 per cent of the total approved outlay in 2014-15, it could end up spending only 87.28 per cent of this amount in 2013-14 and 88.25 per cent in 2012-13.