After a day of stalemate, the Delhi Assembly budget will be presented on Wednesday after the Union Home Ministry gave its approval following a clarification from the AAP government. This came as the budget presentation, scheduled for Tuesday, was stalled after the Centre failed to approve it citing allocation issues.
Delhi Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot too took to Twitter to announce the unveiling of the budget. "Tomorrow, I shall present the @ArvindKejriwal Govt’s Budget for FY 2023-24 & my 1st as Delhi’s Finance Minister. This budget is poised to serve the best interest of citizens & take our city to greater heights. Tomorrow will be recalled as a historic day for Delhi’s development," he added.
The row over the budget had created a constitutional crisis in Delhi after the budget presentation was stalled for the first time in the country. According to the Union Home Ministry, the Delhi government had not replied to the concerns raised by L-G VK Saxena regarding certain allocations.
Kejriwal minced no words in attacking in Centre even after getting the approval, alleging that the Centre had stalled it for ego satisfaction. Stating that the budget had been approved "without any change," Kejriwal said the Centre had stalled it for ego satisfaction.
However, the BJP said that the Kejriwal dispensation sat on the clarifications sought by the Ministry of Home Affairs for three days and then blamed the Centre for gaining "cheap publicity".
But speaking in the Assembly, Kejriwal alleged that the Centre's objection was a departure from tradition and an attack on the Constitution. He also questioned the practice of sending it to the Centre for clearance. "The Delhi government wants to work and not fight. We are tired of fighting and it serves no one. We want to work together with the prime minister, we do not want any tussle," the chief minister said.
He said the Centre had raised four queries. "We replied to them without any other change in the budget. Now, they have given approval to it which proves that their ego was satisfied that the Delhi government bowed down," Kejriwal said.
He also hit out at the ministry's findings that the budget proposal had high allocation for advertisement and relatively low funding for infrastructure and other development initiatives.
"They said advertisement allocation was higher than that for infrastructure. Uneducated people have been sitting from top to bottom. Which is more - Rs 20,000 crore for infrastructure or Rs 500 crore for advertisement?" said the chief minister in the Assembly.
He, however, expressed satisfaction over the MHA's approval to the budget, saying "better late than never" and asked what was the need to create an issue over it.
Kejriwal also asserted that the Lt Governor has no power "to raise any objections, make observations or write anything on a file", as he was bound by the aid and advice of the Cabinet of the elected government. The AAP has been at loggerheads with the LG for months now.
