CM Arvind Kejriwal request to PM Modi; not to stop the city government’s budget
On Tuesday morning, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal stated to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pleading with him not to halt the city government’s budget, hours after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader says the central government had halted it.
Finance Minister Kailash Gehlot was scheduled to present the Delhi Budget 2023-24 in the Assembly on Tuesday. On Monday evening, however, CM Arvind Kejriwal announced that the central government had put the Delhi budget on hold.
“For the 1st time in the nation’s 75-year history, a state’s budget has been halted. Why are you so angry with us Delhiites? Please do not put a halt to the Delhi budget. “The people of Delhi are pleading with you to pass our budget,” Kejriwal stated in his letter to Prime Minister Modi.
In a statement, Gehlot accused the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of sabotaging Delhi’s budget and stated the role of the Delhi chief secretary and finance secretary in the budget’s delay should be investigated.
The President must approve the budget via the Union home ministry.
Officials familiar with the situation at the MHA denied Kejriwal’s allegations, saying the approval had been delayed due to some questions raised by the lieutenant governor (LG).
“The Kejriwal government has increased the expenditure on publicity in 2 years amidst spending half of it, and the LG has questioned for a justification. The LG also sought clarification on why the poor people of Delhi were not receiving benefits from other central schemes such as Ayushman Bharat, where all funds came from the Central government because Delhi was a Union territory (UT),” an official said on condition of anonymity.
“The budget was sent to MHA for approval well in advance on March 10th. However, the file containing MHA’s concerns was unavailable until 6 p.m. today (Monday).
We reacted to MHA’s concerns and returned the file to Delhi’s LG at 9 p.m. today, following CM’s approval. Clearly, the MHA’s concerns are irrelevant and appear to be done solely to derail the Delhi government’s budget for next year. “A sad day for Indian democracy,” Gehlot tweeted.
“Delhi is doing exceedingly well, even though all obstacles are being created daily,” Kejriwal said on Twitter on Tuesday. Imagine if such barriers did not exist and all govt collaborated for the benefit of the people. Then Delhi would grow at a much faster rate.”
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