New Delhi, Mar 26 (IANS): Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday presented the 8th Annual Budget with focus on employment. Calling it 'Rozgaar Budget', Sisodia said that the Delhi government has come up with schemes that will provide jobs, food, and increased opportunities in business to those who have lost their livelihoods during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sisodia said that the budget has an agenda to create new jobs for the people of Delhi and to boost economic recovery from the damage caused in recent years due to Covid-19, GST, and demonetisation.

"Economy of Delhi is slowly emerging from challenges amid the five waves of Covid-19 and due to this, the GSDP of Delhi at the current market prices, is likely to increase from Rs 7,85,342 cr in 2020-21 to Rs 9,23,967 cr in 2021-22. An increase of 17.65 per cent", said Sisodia while presenting the budget.

The Delhi government has proposed Budget Estimate of Rs 75,800 crore for the year 2022-23, 9.86 per cent higher than the Budget Estimate of Rs 69,000 crore for the year 2021-22 and 13.13 per cent higher than the Revised Estimates.

Sisodia announced a budget of Rs 9,668 crore for the health sector. The Deputy CM said a toll free helpline will be launched for the health card initiative. The government has also sanctioned Rs 160 crore for healthcards for Delhi residents. He also said Rs 15 crore have been allocated for yoga teachers who will provide yoga training to the people of Delhi.

In its annual budget, the Delhi government has allocated Rs 800 crore for creating and providing jobs, an audit of which will also be undertaken for the first time, the Deputy Chief Minister informed. He added that Rs 475 crore has been allocated for construction and development of Mohalla Clinics, polyclinics and Mahila Mohalla Clinics. Additionally, the government has also allocated Rs 1,900 crore to construct four new hospitals and redeveloping and upgrading existing hospitals in the city.

The Delhi government has earmarked Rs 100 crore for re-development of popular marketplaces. "The Delhi government will also organise retail and wholesale shopping festivals for 6 to 8 weeks. Under this policy, several popular markets in the city will be redeveloped. The government has allocated Rs 100 crore for this purpose. About five markets will be redeveloped in the first phase", said Sisodia.

The Deputy CM also announced the measures to boost Delhi's Street food. For this, the government will start a "Delhi Food Truck Policy" under which food-trucks will operate from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Our Government has chosen Retail Sector, Food Beverage, Logistics, Tourism, Entertainment, construction, Real estate and Green Energy sectors as a priority to create new jobs, said Sisodia during his budget presentation.

The government plans to develop market in Gandhi Nagar as a 'Grand Garment Hub' in the field of readymade garments textile. This program is expected to create more than 40,000 new employment opportunities in the next 5 years.

While presenting the annual budget 2022-23, Sisodia said that with this Rozgaar budget, we aim to increase employment rate in Delhi from 33 per cent to 45 per cent in the next 5 years. Currently, only 57 lakh citizens of total population are employed. Delhi Govt aims to increase it to 75 lakh in the next financial year.