While the key highlight of the Delhi Budget 2024 was Delhi the fact that Finance minister Atishi on Monday announced the 'Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana' under which Rs 1,000 will be given monthly to all women aged above 18 from the fiscal year 2024-25, the budget made no mention of any allocation of funds for revival of Yamuna river, in fact the environment concerns were missed in the budget allocations. This in the backdrop of the 2021 confident announcement of CM Arvind Kejriwal to completely facelift river yamuna by February 2025 forces us to think whether he will miss his deadline.
The 2021 Yamuna River Promise
In 2021, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced his dream to revive river Yamuna and the deadline he announced for same was February 2025. He in fact had prepared a a six-point action plan to clean the Yamuna by February 2025. Unfortunately, the river is the most polluted and contaminated in the stretch that flows in the national capital. The plan included the following main points of focus.
1) Improving Delhi's sewage treatment capacity and network
2) Cleaning major drains
3) De-silting storm water drains
4) Check on industries releasing untreated waste
During the 2020 Assembly elections, Arvind Kejriwal not only promised to clean and revive the river in five years but also announced that he would actually bathe in it to prove that the river is not contaminated anymore.
Atishi presented the budget for the financial year 2024-25 in the Delhi Assembly on Monday with an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore, and said the government is trying to realise the dream of 'Ram Rajya'. This comes days after Delhi Finance Minister Atishi tabled the state's Economic Survey in the Delhi Assembly on March 1.
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