NEW DELHI: Delhi Deputy CM and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia presented the Rs 75,800 crore annual budget of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the Delhi assembly on Saturday. This yearโs budget focuses on creating employment and boosting businesses.
Calling it a โRozgar Budgetโ, Sisodia said that he has come up with schemes that would provide employment and increase opportunities in business to those who lost their livelihoods during Covid-19 pandemic.
โI am presenting an agenda to create new jobs for the people of Delhi and to boost economic recovery from the damage caused in recent years due to COVID-19, GST, and demonetisation,โ he said.
The Delhi finance minister announced plans to generate 20 lakh jobs in certain sectors in the next five years. โNow I want to present the important section of our โRozgar Budgetโ containing 20 lakh new jobs. In this, I will put plans to take the economy of Delhi on the path of progress and generate lakhs of employment opportunities out of this progress,โ he told the assembly.
He announced the creation of 25,000 new jobs for women under the โSmart Urban Farmingโ initiative.
The governmentโs efforts towards job creation will be focused especially on the sectors of retail, food & beverages, logistic & supply chain, travel & tourism, entertainment, construction, real estate, and green energy, the minister announced.
Sisodia also said that the government plans to increase the percentage of the working population of Delhi from the current 33 per cent to 45 per cent in the next five years
โFrom the next financial year, the program of Business Blaster will be implemented with the children of government schools as well as private schools in Delhi so that the children should not be job seekers but job givers,โ he said.
Sisodia proposed an outlay of Rs 100 crore for redevelopment and transformation of iconic markets of Delhi into attractive tourist destinations. โAt least 1.5 lakh new job opportunities will be created in the next 5 years from within just 5 markets,โ he said.
Every year โDelhi Shopping Festivalโ will be organised for people across the country to ยญshop in Delhi and to โexperience it as a festivalโ, he said.
โShopping festivals will increase the number of tourists by about 4L, which will benefit hotels, restaurants, tourism and other businesses in a big way and overall will have a favorable impact on the lives of 12 lakh people employed in these sectors,โ the minister said.
On the lines of Delhi Shopping Festival, the government has proposed another festival in this budget to increase the business of Delhiโs markets โ Delhi Wholesale Shopping Festival.
To boost the retail market in Delhi, the government has come up with another scheme โ Delhi Bazaar. โWe will provide an online platform named Delhi Bazaar for our local merchants to come there and sell online,โ Sisodia said.
