In a panic reaction of sorts, the BJP government in Gujarat on Friday swung into action following former Chief Minister Suresh Mehta hitting out at it for not sharing important budget documents. Within hours of the allegations, the state government uploaded the relevant documents on its website.
On Friday morning, Mehta alleged that it is a “conspiracy” to hide the reality of the budget. Mehta said that the government has not shared the mid-term plan, development plan, gender budget and outcome budget. “These,” he said, “are part of the budget and used to be shared by the government earlier. The documents are important to understand the developmental works carried out by the government in various fields,” Mehta added.
Mehta, who was the chief minister in the BJP’s regime for one year in mid-1990s, held that he had asked about these documents to one of the officers and he passed on the buck to the other department. Last week, Finance Minister Kanu Desai presented a Rs 3.01 lakh crore budget for 2023-24.
Academician Hemant Shah and green activist Mahesh Pandya, who were also present with Mehta, said that as compared to the last financial year there is an increase of Rs 50,000 crore in the expenditure, but, the government is hiding from the public and even the MLAs about the details of where the amount will be spent.
As a point in case, Pandya pointed out that the outcome budget helps to track the goals achieved during the last fiscal.
Reacting to the state government having uploaded the documents, he said it is good that the documents have been uploaded. “Had we not spoken about it, perhaps the government might not have shared the documents or it would have taken time,” he remarked.
Pandya also alleged that the BJP government in Gujarat is shrinking the space of democratic processes. He pointed out that the Opposition (Congress) has been denied the Opposition leader’s post. In the past, the Congress had given Opposition leader’s post despite the Opposition party not having the required strength.
