Delhi govt's 'outcome budget' 2020-21: Most projects under Directorate of Education 'on track'

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday presented a report card of the AAP government's 2020-21 budget which showed that projects under the Directorate of Education, including installation of CCTV cameras at 459 government schools, were "on track".
Sisodia presented the fourth consecutive report card of the government in the Delhi Assembly on the progress and achievements of schemes, programmes and projects up to December 2020 under the 'Outcome Budget'.

The 'Outcome Budget' was introduced in 2017-18 as a tool linking the budget with outcomes to capture the progress of various schemes, programmes and projects and final deliverables from the citizens' perspective.

The 'Outcome Budget' for 2020-21 showed that out of 44 critical indicators of the Directorate of Education, 84 per cent were "on track".

The highlights of the directorate have been the admission of 35,275 EWS students in private schools, providing mid-day meals to 7.87 lakh students of primary and upper primary classes of government schools, and installing CCTV cameras in 459 out of 728 government school buildings.

The report card also noted that for Class 12, the government schools recorded a pass percentage of 97.92 per cent during academic session 2019-20 as compared to 94.24 per cent the previous year and for Class 10, the pass percentage of government schools was 82.61 per cent as compared to 71.58 per cent the previous year.

For Higher Education, the report card showed that 84 per cent of the indicators covering 13 programmes were "on track" which included 80 per cent progress in the construction work of the east campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

A total of 8,248 new students were enrolled in 2020-21 in the 12 sponsored colleges of Delhi University fully funded by Delhi government against 7,539 students admitted during 2019-20.

A total of 3,760 students have been provided financial assistance during 2020-21 under the 'Merit cum Means Linked Financial Assistance Scheme', the report said.

The Public Works Department recorded 73 per cent indicators as on track, it said.

The PWD completed the target of installing 1.32 lakh CCTV cameras in Phase-II in common public places for general public safety in various assembly constitutions. The flyover at Shastri Park intersection and Seelampur was completed and opened to public on October 19,2020.

While 68 per cent work of widening of bridge on Najafgarh drain at Basai Darapur to cover the complete ROW was completed up to December 2020, only 56 per cent construction was finished of two vehicular half underpass between Wazirabad and Jagatpur and one pedestrian subway near Gandhi Vihar on Outer Ring Road, it said.

Only 40 per cent of the construction of an underpass at Ashram Chowk was completed, it said.

The PWD also established 7,000 hotspots till December 2020, the report said.

The 'Outcome Budget' breaks down the performance of each major scheme and programme of the Delhi government into two kinds of indicators.

The first is the output indicators which determines services or infrastructure that government departments are required to provide.

The other indicator - outcome indicators - shows exactly how people have benefitted from those schemes. All the output and outcome Indicators are expressed in quantifiable and measurable numbers, along with timelines for capital projects.

Progress of each department on the basis of the performance of output and outcome indicators has been graded as "On-Track" if they have made about 75 per cent of the progress and "Off-Track" if achievement is less than 75 per cent of proportionate target under the reference review period.

The 'Outcome Budget' 2020-21 has covered all major departments and agencies combined into eight major sectors.

There are a total number of 595 schemes which contain 1,391 unique output indicators and 1,122 unique outcome indicators.

The prime objective of this exercise is to significantly enhance transparency and accountability in the use of public money, said the report.