The Delhi government allocated Rs 8,685 crore for the health sector in its annual budget for 2024-25 announced on Monday. Presenting the budget in the Delhi Assembly, Finance Minister Atishi said the city’s healthcare system in the last nine years under the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation has moved from a state of ‘majboori se majbooti’ (helplessness to strength) and ‘nirasha se vishwas’ (despair to faith).
The minister presented the Delhi budget 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore, and said the government is trying to realise the dream of ‘Ram Rajya’. She said the second principle of Ram Rajya is curing every ailing person.
She then went on to quote a couplet from Goswami Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas and explained its meaning, saying it speaks for the good health of all.
“It is a matter of misfortune for our country that we are far away from this vision. Till 2014, even Delhi government-run hospitals were in a very bad state.
The filth at these hospitals would belie that even treatment could be offered there. It used to appear that if one went there with one disease, one would return with four diseases,” the minister said.
Pointing out the poor health infrastructure of the hospitals before the Kejriwal government, Atishi cited dirty floors, broken and smelly toilets, soiled bedsheets, crowded counters at OPDs for which no one was held accountable, long queues at pharmacy counters but no chemists.
Sharing details about budgetary allocation for the health sector, the minister said, “For financial year 2024-25, I propose a budgetary outlay of Rs 8,685 crore for health sector.”
She also spoke about how the national capital has changed in the last 10 years under the Aam Aadmi Party-led government. Atishi said that there are 38 hospitals under the Delhi government where daily more than 81,000 OPD patients and per month over 65,000 IPD patients are treated free of cost.
