Kejriwal cuts ad budget after SC threat over not paying for RRTS funds

New Delhi: Delhi Finance Minister Atishi tabled the revised estimates of budget 2023-24 in the Assembly on Friday, slashing spending on advertisements and non-yielding schemes while providing extra funds to the cash-strapped DJB.

Delhi government sources claimed there was an encouraging rise in revenue of the government in 2023-24, hence no loans are required from the Centre.

The revised estimates provide for an additional infusion of Rs 1,033 crore for the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in 2023-24, they said.

Recently, Atishi had claimed that Delhi was staring at a water supply crisis and warned that the city may might face difficulty in sewerage maintenance due to funds crunch faced by the DJB.

Sources said the Delhi government provided Rs 495 crore for road, rail transport system, gave additional Rs 471 crore for additional facilities at schools and set aside Rs 650 crore for pension of DTC retired employees, in the revised estimates for 2023-24.

However, the budgetary allocations have been reduced in certain sectors including government's advertisement spending by Rs 360 crore.

The revised estimates also cut down the budget allocated to the Tourism department for holding the shopping festival from Rs 100 crore to merely Rs 2.6 crore, as no progress has been made so far to hold the mega event.

The month-long proposed shopping festival matching grandeur and scale of Dubai festival was announced in the budget 2022-23 by then Finance minister Manish Sisodia.

The allocation for Sports University has also been slashed from Rs 100 crore to just Rs 2 crore in the revised estimates for 2023-24. No actual progress has been made on the ground to set up the university so far, the sources claimed.

The revised estimates also earmarked Rs 94.99 crore for Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS) in the 2023-24 budget.

Recently, the Arvind Kejriwal government paid a sum of Rs 915 crore in two instalments for Delhi-Meerut corridor after the Supreme Court acted tough threatening to divert its advertisement budget to fulfil its financial commitment for the rapid rail project.