New Delhi:The national capital will not be tabling its Budget on Tuesday, amid a fresh standoff between the Kejriwal government and the Centre. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that the central government is resorting to 'gundagardi' (hooliganism) by putting on hold the presentation of the Delhi government's budget for 2023-24 in the Assembly.
This is for the first time in the history of the country that a budget of a government has been put on hold. A video clip of the AAP supremo's speech was tweeted by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Responding to the Chief Minister's outburst on the decision, the MHA said the ministry has sought clarification from the AAP government as its budget proposal had a high allocation for advertisement and relatively low funding for infrastructure and other development initiatives. "The AAP government has so far not responded to our queries," one of the MHA sources said.
AAP government sources denied the charges as lies. The total budget size was Rs 78,800 crore, out of which 22,000 crore was earmarked for expenditure on infrastructure and just Rs 550 crore on advertisements, they claimed. The allocation for advertisement was the same as in last year's budget, they said.