Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented her first budget on March 25, with an accent on social services and capital expenditure. This was the first budget of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in little more than a quarter of a century, making it an important document to look for indications of the direction in which the party intends to proceed in the national capital.
It needs to be noted at the very outset, though, that the emasculation of the Delhi government by the centre, especially over the last decade or so of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) tenure, makes it a much less significant document than it might otherwise have been.
The first thing to note is that Gupta’s 2025-26 budget of Rs 1 lakh crore represents a 31.5 per cent increase over last year’s budget. This might be an indication that the Delhi BJP will celebrate this as an achievement of a ‘double-engine’ sarkar.
AAP’s Leader of the Opposition, Atishi, has sent a letter to the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly seeking two days of discussions as opposed to the ‘barely one hour’ supposedly allocated in the List of Business. Before going into the specifics, it must be admitted that the budget’s importance calls for a thoroughgoing discussion, and enough time must be allocated to it.
Gupta’s budget has 10 focus areas, including infrastructure, electricity, health and women’s safety. The capital expenditure has been doubled to Rs 28,000 crore, which represents 28 per cent of expenditure, a considerable increase both in real and percentage terms.
But what catches the eye is an outlay of Rs 5,100 crore for the ‘Mahila Samriddhi Yojana’, under which eligible women will get a stipend of Rs 2,500. A Rs 210-crore allocation has been made to provide expecting women with nutrient kits and an allowance of Rs 2,11,000.
The budget also envisages the installation of 50,000 CCTV cameras across Delhi to improve conditions for women’s safety. Clearly, Gupta’s government has learnt something from the Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra experiences of trying to build a women’s constituency.
Among other social service provisions, there has been a Rs 100 crore outlay for 100 ‘Atal Canteens’. It is to be hoped that these do not fall short of funds, given the fact that the fiscal deficit is expected to be Rs 13,702 crore, compared to Rs 1,523 crore in the revised estimate of 2024-25.
But the increased outlays for health and social services are welcome, as is that for infrastructure and women’s safety. Some initiatives on the environment, including air pollution, sewerage and the Yamuna, are old problems that have defied solution. Overall, the jury will be out on the budget.
