"Where will funds come from?": Sandeep Dikshit questions BJP's financial aid scheme in Delhi

New Delhi [India], March 8 (ANI): Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Saturday questioned the implementation of the BJP's financial aid scheme of providing Rs 2,500 per month to women in Delhi and said that the scheme compromises 60 per cent of the national capital's budget.
"If they fulfil that promise, we will welcome it. However, there is only one question: Where will the funds for this come from? The BJP had said that every woman above the age of 18 would be given this honour. If we go by the Election Commission's data, there were approximately 72 lakh female voters in Delhi. The total cost for this comes to around Rs 21,600 crore. Now, considering the entire development budget is 37,000 crore, which includes hospitals, schools, and subsidies, how can you allocate around 60 percent of the budget to just one scheme?" Dikshit told ANI.
"I hope that the money spent by the Delhi government will not compromise development," the Congress leader said.
Earlier, Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi MLA Gopal Rai criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday for not fulfilling the promises made before the Assembly elections, urging the Delhi government to implement the financial aid scheme of providing Rs 2,500 per month to women in Delhi, also called the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana.
"Before the elections, BJP had promised, so the people of Delhi want the budget to be prepared based on that. The first guarantee was to give women of Delhi Rs 2,500, and they had said that by 8th March, women would get the financial aid in their accounts," Gopal Rai told ANI.
Atishi had earlier, along with AAP MLAs and volunteers, staged a protest against the BJP-led Delhi government on this issue.
Notably, in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly elections, BJP had promised a cash transfer scheme--the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana--to transfer rupees 2,500 to the accounts of all women in the national capital. (ANI)