Last Updated on March 21, 2023 11: 31am
NEW DELHI: In an interesting political development in the national capital, the Delhi government’s presentation of the budget scheduled for Tuesday has been put on hold.
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This came as a fallout of the charges and counter-charges by the Arvind Kejriwal government and the central government over allocation of funds under various heads.
Speaking at a programme organized by a private news channel on Monday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal charged that the Centre was resorting to ‘gundagardi’ and that it was for the first time in the history of the country that a budget of a government was put on hold.
Notably, a video clip of his speech was tweeted by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
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Sources in the Delhi government said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has stopped the Kejriwal government’s budget and it will not be tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday.
As the chief minister lashed out at the Centre, sources in the MHA said the ministry has sought clarification from the AAP government as its budget proposal had high allocation for advertisement and relatively low funding for infrastructure and other development initiatives.
However, Delhi Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot denied the charges as lies.
The total budget size was Rs 78,800 crore, out of which 22,000 crore was earmarked for expenditure on infrastructure and just Rs 550 crore on advertisements, he said.
The allocation for advertisement was the same as in last year’s budget, he reportedly added.
In a statement, the MHA said, “The Lieutenant Governor, Delhi, 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 vide its letter dated 17.03.2023 has requested GNCTD to resubmit the Budget addressing these concerns for taking further action. The reply from GNCTD is awaited for last four days. For the benefit of the people of Delhi, the GNCTD should submit reply immediately.”
In a separate statement, Gahlot said, “It is now learned 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. For mysterious reasons, the Chief Secretary of Delhi kept the letter hidden for 3 days.”
Delhi government sources said that the finance secretary will write to the MHA on Tuesday for its approval and the budget will be tabled after its nod.
They said budget will not be tabled on Tuesday.
The Government of Delhi, thereafter, sought the approval of the President as mandated by law by sending a letter to the Home Ministry.
The Home Ministry conveyed its observations to the Delhi government on March 17.
“Since Delhi is the country’s capital and also a large metropolis in which need for creation and improvements of infrastructure is extremely important, the allocation for Capital projects does not appear to be sufficient,” the Lieutenant Governor said, according to reports.
There was no clarity yet on when the budget will be presented in the Assembly.
The ongoing budget session of the Assembly is scheduled to conclude on March 23.