New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday approved the Delhi government's budget for the year 2023-24 after stalling its presentation that was earlier scheduled for today. The decision came a day after heated exchanges between the AAP dispensation and the Centre over the Delhi Budget and hours after Kejriwal's letter to the PM.
The MHA stated that the budget will now be tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday. The approval came hours after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to not stop the Budget exercise and asking if he was "upset" with the people of Delhi.
"Better late than never. The central government passed our budget. You would have already passed, what was the need to create so much fuss?," the Delhi CM wrote in a pointed Twitter post. Reliable sources said that the MHA has conveyed its permission to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor's office for the AAP government to present the budget in the legislative assembly.
The presentation of the Delhi government's Budget for 2023-24, which was scheduled for Tuesday, was put on hold with the Kejriwal dispensation and the Centre trading charges over allocations under various heads.
"I inform this House with sadness and heaviness that the Centre stopped our Budget yesterday. The complete Budget with documents was sent to the MHA on March 10," Delhi Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot said.
Earlier in the day, Gahlot had said that they had resent the budget with the necessary modifications sought by the Centre. The Ministry of Home Affairs had sought clarification over the “lopsided” allocations under different budget heads in the Delhi Budget 2023-24 due to which the budget was put on hold.
Also read: Arvind Kejriwal writes to Narendra Modi, please don't stop Delhi budget
Amid the deadlock, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to PM Narendra Modi over the matter. Kejriwal said it was “for the first time in the country's 75-year history that a state budget has been stopped”. “Why are you upset with the people of Delhi," CM Kejriwal wrote in his letter to PM Modi. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur however said that it was unfair to criticize the Centre over the delay in the budget.
Thakur said that Delhi LG had approved the annual Budget for 2023-24 “with certain observations and sent the file to CM”. “Now Delhi Govt has sent the file to MHA for approval of President. MHA has conveyed its observations to Delhi Govt and is waiting for the reply since 17 March,” Union Minister Anurag Thakur said.
According to reliable sources, the Delhi government has prepared a Rs 78,800 crore budget for the financial year 2023-24. It is said that the Centre had sought clarification over the relatively higher allocations for government advertisement against infrastructure development.
Sources said that before the AAP came to power in Delhi, the allocation for advertisements used to be around Rs 15 to 20 crores per year, which the AAP government exponentially rose to Rs 500 crore last year and to Rs 550 crore this year.
