Delhi Lieutenant-Governor VK Saxena on Friday listed out various achievements of the Arvind Kejriwal Government and hoped that the national Capital would become a progressive global city one day. He was addressing the Budget Session beginning from Friday.

His address, which began at 11 am,  was interrupted as BJP legislators raised slogans demanding Kejriwal's resignation over alleged corruption in the now-scrapped excise policy and AAP legislators opposing them.

To bring order to the house, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel marshalled out three BJP MLAs –Jitendra Mahajan, Anil Bajpayee and OP Sharma following the interruptions. Other party legislators too walked out of the assembly shortly after.  Later BJP MLAs protested outside the House and shouted slogans against the Kejriwal government.

Resuming his address, LG Saxena said Delhi students have performed well due to the government's focus on education.

Saxena, in his inaugural address of the Budget session Friday, said that “due to the Delhi Government’s keen focus on the education sector, the students have performed well.” Saxena went on to compare the government’s School of Excellence to world-class schools, and said, “Delhi has performed well in the education sector in the past five years.” Mission Buniyad has led to significant improvement in learning capabilities of the students," he noted.

Saxena also said the education infrastructure has improved in Delhi with around 20,000 new classrooms being constructed. “All classrooms will be converted into digital classrooms within 5 years. ‘Project Voices’ is being launched in all schools for students of Class 3rd to 12th for sharing thoughts through speaking,” he said.

Talking about the labourers welfare, the LG said that minimum wages for unskilled workers is Rs.16,792/- per month; for semi-skilled worker, it is Rs.18,499/- per month while for skilled workers the minimum wages are Rs.20,357/- per month. “These rates are the highest amongst all the States and Union Territories in the country and at par with the Central Government Rates in A-class cities,” Saxena said.

Reacting to the LG address,  Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that  the Delhi Government has doubled the speed of progress in every field including education-health, electricity-water and infrastructure. “There were many hurdles but the Delhi Government has done a great job. The government is being harassed, its work is being obstructed, yet AAP's government is doing good work,” Kejriwal said. Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri has said that the Lieutenant Governor has been forced to read the Kejriwal government's bundle of lies in the form of his address, otherwise there is nothing true in his address.

In his 20 minutes speech, the Lieutenant Governor said the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of Delhi at current prices increased from Rs. 6,16,085 Crores in 2016-17 to Rs.9,23,967 crores during 2021-22, registering a growth of 50%.  The contribution of Delhi to national GDP (at current prices) is 4.22% as compared to its share of 1.52% in the total population of the country.

“The per capita income of Delhi at current prices is estimated at Rs. 4,01,982/- during 2021-22 registering an increase of 16.81% as compared to Rs. 3,44,136/- during 2020-21,” he said.  The LG said that 1,35,500 CCTV cameras have been installed throughout Delhi.

Talking about the health infrastructure, he said more than 16,000 beds will be added with new hospitals coming up, while the existing hospitals are being upgraded. He also said that the people of Delhi will be provided voter ID card-based health cards.

Talking about the various initiatives of the transport department, he said people can avail 33 transport department related services online and 1,500 electric buses have been added to the DTC fleet. He said the government is committed towards a "green and lean" Delhi.

Talking about the power sector, Saxena said Delhi has extended electricity subsidy, irrespective of the load, of entire bill amount of domestic consumers utilizing up-to 200 units in a month and up-to Rs.800 per month to the domestic consumers utilizing up-to 201 units to 400 units per month during 2022-23.