Centre wanted to "satisfy its ego", LG has no power to raise objection on Delhi Budget, alleges Kejriwal
Mar 21, 2023
New Delhi [India], March 21 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday lashed out at Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena alleging that the raising of observations on the Budget was against the Constitution and that LG has no right to raise any objection to the Budget.
Kejriwal alleged that the Centre only wanted to "satisfy its ego" by stalling the Budget.
"According to the law, the Central government has no right to interfere in the Delhi budget. Whatever it did was unconstitutional. But we don't want to fight with the government. We satisfied their ego, they sent four points. We gave the answers to all four and they passed the Budget. You could have passed it yesterday," Kejriwal said addressing the media here.
"It was only for ego satisfaction that they have compelled us to bow down. The LG has no power to raise any objection or make any observation on the Budget, it is beyond his power. So whatever observation was raised was against the Constitution," he added.
The Chief Minister accused the Centre of planting news about the more expenditure on advertisement than infrastructure.
"They planted the news in the media that the Delhi government has spent more on advertisement than infrastructure. The allocation on the budget is the same as last year, Rs 500 crore, it has not been increased. We have an allocation of over Rs 20,000 crore on infrastructure in the Budget. How is Rs 500 crore more than Rs 20,000? They were lying. I am happy that the budget will be presented tomorrow. The crisis has ended," he said.
Kejriwal further laid down the objections raised by the Centre and the answers given by the Delhi government.
"One objection was on the capital expenditure. We told them there had been no change in the capital expenditure for the last four years. The other was on the expenditure on advertising, we told them that it is similar to the last year. They pointed out something about subsidies. We told them that take a look at the subsidy of a pattern of the last four years, it is the same," he said.
The Chief Minister urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "let the Delhi government work".
"I want to request the Prime Minister that we want to work with you and with your cooperation. We do not want conflict. You let us work. We will fully cooperate with the Central government," he said.
Earlier today, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena's office countered the Aam Aadmi Party's allegations of stalling the Delhi government budget scheduled for today stating that it was not "blocked" and the Kejriwal government's move to fix the date of its presentation before seeking the President's approval is "wrong" and displays the government's "mal-intent".
The LG office said that since Delhi is a Union Territory and not a state, the pre-approval of the President of India has been going on for the past 28 years.
Earlier today, Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged, "It is happening for the first time in the whole world that the central government has stopped the budget of any state."
Responding to the allegations, the Delhi LG office said, "Arvind Kejriwal, his ministers and the Aam Admi Party are very deliberately making false statements with the sole purpose of misleading the people of Delhi and the media and distracting them from the failures of the AAP Government. He has been saying that the Centre has blocked a "State's" Budget. This is patently false. Delhi is a Union Territory and not a State and therefore it is fully a part and partial of the Government of India. Moreover, the Budget has not been blocked."
Stating that the approval of the President's consent on the Budget of Delhi is provided in the Constitution, the statement said that the government's move to fix the date of presentation beforehand shows its "mal-intent".
"The Constitution provides that previous consent and approval of the President of India are required before laying the Budget of Delhi in the Legislative Assembly and this has been going on for the past 28 years without fail. Fixing the date for presentation of the Budget before seeking the President's approval for the Budget, in itself is wrong and shows mal-intent on the part of the AAP Government," it said.
