The Delhi Budget for 2023-24 is set to be presented by finance minister Kailash Gahlot at 11 am at the Delhi Legislative Assembly, after approval from the Union home ministry following two days of verbal duel between the Centre and AAP government.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had accused the central government of resorting to “gundagardi” and putting the budget on hold. Both the CM and L-G accused each other of stopping the budget.
The Ministry of Home Affairs sought clarification from the Kejriwal-led government as its budget proposal had high allocation for advertisement and relatively low funding for infrastructure and other development initiatives. The ministry added that they had been waiting since four days for AAP government to submit a reply but it had not been done.
Gahlot, meanwhile, told Delhi assembly that the “file was sent to the Finance Secretary’s house at night. When I spoke to him in the morning, he informed me that the reply was sent to the MHA through both email as well as physically.”
“The budget file was sent to the MHA for approval on March 10. Around 2 pm on Monday, I got to know that the MHA raised objections. I spoke to the Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary to know what the query was. I received the file around 6 pm. I listed the answers and spoke to the CM. The file was sent to the L-G at 9 pm and returned at 10.30 pm,” the FM told the house.