New Delhi, Mar 25, 2025, IANS

New Delhi, March 25 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, presenting the biggest budget of Rs 1 lakh crore on Tuesday, announced Rs 5,100 crore for the Mahila Samridhi Yojana, the ambitious women-centric scheme announced before the Delhi elections. Highlighting PM Modi's commitment to women's empowerment, she said, "Aligning with the Prime Minister's vision, we had announced to allocate Rs 2500 to poor women of Delhi. I am overjoyed to announce that this Budget allocates Rs 5,100 crore to pay Rs 2,500 per month to eligible women." The Chief Minister also announced a doubling of the capital expenditure to Rs 28,000 crore for the financial year 2025-26. "This time, a historic budget of Rs 1 lakh crore is being tabled for 2025-26, which is 31.5 per cent more than the last Budget. This is an unprecedented and historic budget," said CM Rekha Gupta while tabling the Budget on the second day of the Assembly session. "In the Viksit Delhi Budget, this capital expenditure will be used to build roads, drainage and improve sewerage, education etc," she said. Delhi CM further announced an allocation of Rs 2144 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, one of the Centre's flagship schemes. The rollout of Ayushman Bharat Yojana in Delhi was a key election promise by the BJP as the previous Aam Aadmi Party-led government had opted out of it. "Delhi government has decided to provide a top-up of Rs 10 lakh health insurance cover, in addition to the existing Rs 5 lakh from Government of India," CM Rekha Gupta said. With this, Delhi is set to become the 35th province to adopt AB-PMJAY -- the world's largest publicly funded health insurance scheme.