New Delhi, Mar 9 (IANS): Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday presented a Rs 69,000 crore Budget for 2021-22 in the Assembly, and said it was themed on "patriotism".

Sisodia claimed that this was the highest Budget of the Delhi government till date, which is 6 per cent higher than the previous years. Last year (2020-21), the annual Budget was Rs 65,000 crore.

Calling it a 'Deshbhakti' Budget, Sisodia said this was to mark the 75th anniversary of India's Independence in 2022.

He said the government has planned to hoist over 500 flags across the national capital much like the one at the central park, Connaught Place.

With patriotism as the theme for year 2021-22, the Delhi government will spend Rs 10 crore for various programmes to be organised on the life of B.R. Ambedkar. It also proposes to start patriotic programmes which will run for 75 weeks across the national capital.

Sisodia said the Delhi government is working to increase the per capita income of its citizens. "At present, Delhi's per capita income is 16 times lower in comparison to Singapore. We are working in this direction and setting a platform for increasing per capita income of Delhi by 16 times by 2047," Sisodia said.

In other important allocations, Delhi government will open the first Sainik school. "There are around 35 Sainik schools across the country, however, not a single Sainik school is in Delhi. Therefore, we have decided to establish one Sainik school in Delhi," Sisodia added.

He said the Deshbhakti curriculum will also be started in all Delhi schools. He said, "There would one specific period for Deshbhakti curriculum in all schools."

For the Art and Culture department, the state government announced to allocate Rs 521 crore.

The Finance Minister stated that Delhi is reaching close to the target 11,000 DTC buses. At present, the total fleet of government buses is 6,693. A 1,000 more DTC buses will be added soon. Apart from this, 300 electric buses will also be added by next year.

While reading the Budget, Sisodia said that the Delhi government has taken progressive steps in reducing air pollution. For that the government has initiated electric vehicles policy and is promoting the scheme aggressively. He said over 7,000 electric vehicles have been introduced in Delhi in the last six months.