Delhi Government is likely to present its annual Budget 2024-25 in the first week of March as it has not been finalised. This is the second time in history, Delhi Budget has been delayed. Announcing a delay in presenting the Delhi Budget, Atishi on Thursday requested an extension of the ongoing Budget session till the first week of March. Terming it a mockery of democracy, the opposition BJP said the Kejriwal government is using budget to avoid investigation in the excise policy scam case and demanded the Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena to sack this government. The Delhi budget was deliberately delayed by this government in the wake of the summons by the Enforcement Directorate and the Court,” Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said.
Earlier, explaining the delay of presentation of budget 2024-25 in the House of the Delhi Assembly, Atishi said there have been some delays in budget finalisation due to some reasons. “We received approval for the budget from Delhi Lt Governor on February 14. Earlier the budget was passed by the cabinet on 11th February, and on 13th February it was sent to Lieutenant Governor for his assent. There has been no delay from LG's side. Today the budget will be sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) The approval from the MHA and the presidential assent will take at least 10-15 days. It is not possible for us to present the budget before February 25. I request that the budget session be extended till first week of March. I estimate that the budget won't be presented before the 25th of February, it is possible that the budget will be presented after February 25th," she explained in the House.
Meanwhile, BJP MLAs questioned the delay, in response to which Atishi said, "It is a delay on our part. We are not putting allegations against anyone." The House accepted the Finance Minister’s proposal and passed it by a voice vote. With these developments, the timeline for Delhi's budget presentation remains with possibilities stretching into late February or early March.
Lambasting the AAP government, Bidhuri has alleged that the AAP government has made even an important document like the budget a victim of mockery and politics.
He alleged that Kejriwal has tried to use a sacred document like the Budget as his weapon to escape the investigation of the liquor scam, but no matter how hard he tries, he cannot escape this investigation.
“This is a clear administrative failure of the government. Therefore, BJP MLAs will meet the Lieutenant Governor and demand that the AAP government be dismissed immediately,” he said.
Bidhuri and all other BJP MLAs, including Mohan Singh Bisht, Vijendra Gupta, Omprakash Sharma, Jitendra Mahajan, Anil Vajpayee, Ajay Mahawar and Abhay Verma, expressed their anger in the press conference over the failure of the AAP government in not presenting the budget in the Delhi Assembly.
Bidhuri said that the government itself admitted in the Assembly that there was a delay in making the budget but no reason was given.
“We want to know the clear reason and also who is responsible for it. The budget was sent to the LG for approval on 14th February and he approved it on the same day.
Finance Minister Atishi admitted in the House that the budget has been sent to the Home Ministry today itself. After all, how was the date of the budget session approved without the budget being made,” he said. In the Delhi Legislative Assembly, the budget session started on Thursday.
During this time, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal proposed the election of financial committees with the permission of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, SRam Niwas Goel. It was passed by a voice vote. However, the date for presenting Delhi's budget in the House has not been decided yet.
