Delhi Budget session begins, Arvind Kejriwal to present budget on 8 March

The five-day Budget session of the Delhi Assembly began on Monday with the address of Lt Governor Anil Baijal, his first since assuming office in December last year.

In his 30 minute-long speech, the Governor ran through the work of the AAP government with education and health as the highlight areas.

The Arvind Kejriwal government will present its third Budget on 8 March since coming to power in 2015.

Baijal, who has had an uneventful tenure so far, stuck to the script as he underlined the government's measures like slashing power tariff by half and making a certain quantum of water supply free to improve the living standard of city residents.

He said the Delhi government's 50 per cent subsidy on monthly power consumption of up to 400 units would continue.

"Five new schools have been opened, while five others have been upgraded. Construction of 20 new schools and 8,000 classrooms are underway," he said.

In the area of health, Baijal referred to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's praise for 'mohalla clinics' (neighbourhood clinics), and said 1,000 such facilities will come up in the next six months.

Around 122 polyclinics, also part of AAP's three-tier health care reforms, will be built in the next one year, he said.

Baijal said the phase III of Delhi Metro, under which two corridors are being built parallel to the arterial Ring Road, will be launched by June, while the Phase IV which has recently been cleared will come up by 2021.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other top ministers of the Cabinet, including Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, as well as Leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta were present during the House proceedings.

--PTI