Chandigarh: With about a year left for assembly polls, chief minister Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Sunday rolled out monthly aid of Rs 1,000 for women and a new scheme providing Rs 1,500 for Scheduled Caste (SC) women in its 2026-27 budget.
Providing Rs 1,000 monthly aid to every woman above 18 (barring a tiny section of high-income earners and officials) was a key poll promise of the ruling party in 2022 assembly polls, and was awaited since.
Presenting the fifth budget of the AAP government for 2026–27, proposing a total outlay of Rs 2,60,437 crore and projecting the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at Rs 9,80,635 crore with an estimated growth rate of 10%, the finance minister Harpal Cheema tabled the said scheme that also marked the International Women’s Day and was being seen as a major budget move ahead of polls.
Also, notably, this was the first time in the history of Punjab that a budget was presented on a Sunday.
Stating that the effective revenue deficit is projected at 2.06% of the GSDP and the fiscal deficit at 4.08%, the finance minister said that with the said scheme, the government has worked to fulfil all the guarantees promised to the people before the 2022 polls.
Elaborating further on the scheme, he added that a budgetary outlay of Rs 9,300 crore has been earmarked to ensure that nearly 97% of adult women in Punjab are covered, including women already receiving social security pensions.
Speaking about the education sector, Cheema said the government has proposed an outlay of Rs 19,279 crore, representing a 7% increase over the previous year. He also announced the launch of the “Sikhiya Kranti 2.0” initiative, a Rs 3,500 crore project in collaboration with the World Bank aimed at transforming the education ecosystem.
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Turning to healthcare, Cheema said the government has proposed an allocation of Rs 6,879 crore for the sector. He said the Mukhya Mantri Sehat Yojana has been provided a Rs 2,000 crore provision to offer cashless treatment of up to Rs 10 lakh per year for 65 lakh families in the state. The Aam Aadmi Clinics network, currently consisting of 881 clinics, will be expanded with the addition of 143 new clinics and the upgrading of 308 Subsidiary Health Centres, increasing the total to 1,432 clinics, he said.
Addressing the agrarian sector, he held that Rs 15,377 crore has been allocated for agriculture and allied sectors. Highlighting employment generation, the finance minister held that 63,943 candidates have been recruited in government departments since 2022.
