The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi on Monday criticised the Union Budget for 2021-22, accusing the Centre of step-motherly treatment since the amount of Rs 957 crore allocated to the capital is much below expectation and there was no increase in its share of central taxes.
Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia said the BJP-ruled central government had once again disappointed Delhi since it had got only Rs 325 crore from the central taxes despite Delhiites paying Rs 1.5 lakh crores as tax.
Sisodia said that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which is constitutionally on a similar footing with the NCT of Delhi, has been provided a grant of Rs 30,757 crore as against Rs 957 crore to Delhi.
“There are three union territories with legislature in India, and Delhi gets the least amount of grant in absolute terms and ridiculously low amount in terms of per capita grant from Government of India,” he said.
“Delhi continues to get step-motherly treatment from the Government of India. The grant in lieu of share in Central Taxes provided in the Union Budget 2021-22 has been kept unchanged for two decades at Rs 325 crore,” Sisodia said, adding that the total grants/loans/transfer from Government of India to Delhi has been reduced from Rs 1116 crore to Rs 957 crore.
He said that the Municipal Corporations have again been left high and dry with zero allocation against the demand of Rs 12,000 crore. “The BJP government has given Rs two lakh crore to all other municipal bodies across India but not to BJP-ruled MCDs.”
“The Union Budget is a vision document of any government and spells out its economic agenda for the next financial year. This year there was great anticipation around the Union Budget and people of Delhi had high hopes from the Central government that justice would finally be done to them, particularly amid the Covid-19 pandemic which has devastated the lives of many people,” Sisodia said.
He said the grant towards Disaster Response has been reduced from Rs 161 crore to Rs five crore. Additional Central Assistance for projects, according to the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, has been reduced from Rs 150 crore to zero.
He said the ten MPs of Delhi, including Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, should fight for justice to the people of Delhi before passing the Union Budget.
