New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Government in Delhi has accused the Union government under Bharatiya Janata Party of using the Ministry of Home Affairs for “spreading falsehoods about Delhi government’s budget” and preventing the elected government of the national capital from presenting the annual budget. AAP has claimed that such a thing has happened “for the first time” in history.
On Monday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the Union government has “stopped” his government from presenting the Budget as per the schedule.
The Budget was to be presented by the newly-appointed finance minister Kailash Gahlot in the Delhi assembly at 11 am today.
Speaking at an event organised by a media house, Kejriwal had stated: “You will be shocked. This has never happened before in the history of the country. The Delhi Budget has to be presented in the Delhi Assembly tomorrow morning. The Centre has stopped the Delhi Budget from being presented. The Budget will not come tomorrow morning. Delhi government employees will not get paid, doctors, teachers will not be paid.”
Later in the evening, Gahlot, who had tabled the economic survey and outcome budget on Monday, issued a statement in which he accused the MHA of spreading lies about the provisions in the Budget and using the excuse to stall it.
“It is unfortunate that MHA is spreading falsehoods about Delhi government’s budget. Nearly Rs 22,000 crores have been allocated for capital expenditure next year, whereas the allocation for advertisements is only Rs 500 crore, which is similar to that of last year. The concerns raised by MHA are irrelevant and seemingly done only to scuttle the budget for next year of Delhi government,” the Delhi finance minister said in the statement.
Delhi minister Gopal Rai also tweeted the statement by Gahlot on the issue. In this statement, Gahlot also claimed that “the MHA expressed some concerns on Delhi government’s budget and refused to give it approval through a letter sent to the Chief Secretary on 17 March 2023.”
Stating that for mysterious reasons, the Chief Secretary kept the letter hidden for three days and he was only told of it at 2 pm on March 20, Gahlot demanded that “the role of Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary of Delhi in delaying Delhi’s budget out to be investigated.”
Centre BLOCKS Delhi’s Budget.
Finance Minister @kgahlot‘s Statement: pic.twitter.com/pPD55ZFED5
— Gopal Rai (@AapKaGopalRai) March 20, 2023
This is yet another instance of the Union government under Narendra Modi getting into a direct confrontation with the elected government in Delhi through the use of the offices of the Lieutenant Governor and the Ministry of Home Affairs. According to the delegation of powers and the rules applicable to the Budget, the annual financial statement is sent to the L-G for his assent and comments. From there it is sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs by the Chief Minister for clearance. The ministry seeks the approval of the President, upon getting which the Budget is presented in the House.
In the present case, as reports say, the L-G had approved the budget with some observations on March 9 and sent the file to Kejriwal. Citing sources, reports stated that the L-G had noted that the effective expenditure on capital components (such as infrastructure projects) was around 20% of the total budget and that this was not “sufficient”.
He had also observed that allocation to the Directorate of Information and Publicity, which is responsible for issuing advertisements and government’s publicity, was higher than last year and termed this “incomprehensible and unjustifiable”.
The MHA, the report said, had later issued a statement saying that the L-G had raised “certain concerns of administrative nature on the proposed Budget, keeping in view the fiscal interest of the National Capital Territory on which MHA… has requested GNCTD to resubmit the Budget addressing these concerns for taking further action. The reply from GNCTD is awaited for the last four days. For the benefit of the people of Delhi, the GNCTD should submit a reply immediately.”
However, as per Gahlot the Chief Secretary did not communicate these concerns to him on time and deliberately delayed the matter for three days. The AAP had earlier also raised concerns around the arrest of former deputy CM Manish Sisodia in the Delhi liquor policy case saying it would impact the presentation of the Delhi Budget.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP has accused Kejriwal of “lying” to the people of Delhi on the issue of Budget presentation. The unit’s working president Virendra Sachdeva was on Tuesday quoted in a news report as saying that “Arvind Kejriwal always does something or the other to embarrass the country. If taxpayers’ money is wasted, the L-G has the right to raise objections. Kejriwal always makes wild allegations against the prime minister (Narendra Modi) when his lies are caught.”
The BJP leader also asked “why did the Delhi government sit on the file regarding the budget for three days? Why did CM Arvind Kejriwal choose a television news channel to tell this lie instead of utilising the floor of the Assembly when it was in session?”. He insisted that “all this was done as per a planned conspiracy to defame the prime minister.”