As per NDTV news published today, our Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot will present the Delhi Budget today at 11 A.M. the budget will be presented today on 22nd March 2023 after days of back-and-forth between a tough controversy between the Centre and the AAP government. The Delhi Budget has been approved by the Home Ministry yesterday after its initial objections to certain allocations for advertisements and infrastructure.
The news further states certain facts behind the budget. They are:
- The budget was scheduled to be presented in the assembly last Tuesday; however, the Centre had asked Arvind Kejriwal and his government to resend it after addressing certain concerns flagged by the Lieutenant Governor.
- The budget was cleared by the Centre yesterday evening after clarification from the Aam Aadmi Party Government, making its way for an uninterrupted presentation in the Assembly.
- The budget will be presented by our Finance Minister in the Delhi Assembly today, denying the charges and he has mentioned the INR 78,800 crore budget where INR 22,000 crore was earmarked for infrastructure and about INR 550 crore for advertisements.
- An explanation was earlier demanded from the AAP government about the high allocation made to advertisements and the relatively low funds assigned to infrastructure along with other initiatives and thus the previous announcement has been delivered to justify.
- Arvind, yesterday in the Assembly had stated that the Centre’s objections are unconstitutional and groundless. The budget approval without any changes had been claimed and approved by the Delhi Chief Minister questioned the practice of sending it to the centre for clearance.
- BJP has made allegations about AAP’s misuse of public funds for advertisements which has been recorded as a recurring event since 2015. It also alleged that the Delhi government sat on the clarifications and discussed them for 3 days after which it blamed the Centre for gaining such low mean publicity.
- Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, in the last year had taken a dig at AAP, talking about the two political cultures in the country. While one is the silent worker the other is based on advertisements and TV interviews.
- Lieutenant Governor, V K Saxena last December ordered the AAP government to reimburse about INR 163.62 crore that it had earlier illegally spent on advertisements. A huge political blow has been hit by this recovery notice issued by the Directorate of Information and Publicity.
- Manish Sisodia, our Deputy Chief Minister also pointed out that advertisement for BJP chief ministers is published in Delhi’s newspapers too. He had questioned the government whether the BJP will also recover money from them or not.
Thus, the Delhi government will present its annual budget today after getting signed off from the Union Home Ministry. There have been several hours of capping intense drama and controversy regarding the final publication of the budget and its terms, claims Delhi Cm Arvind Kejriwal. He labelled this budget as an ‘unprecedented and unconstitutional crisis’. The budget that has been delayed due to the debate between the Centre and the State has been finally approved after waiting for the fiscal document till the 11th hour. Though the CM has claimed the centre’s interference with the Budget, the Centre has duly presented its procedural concerns saying no such interference has been passed.