Delhi govt blames Centre as shadow cast on Budget

NEW DELHI: An unprecedented eleventh hour drama cast a shadow over whether the 2023-24 Budget for Delhi will be presented on Tuesday when it emerged late on Monday that the requisite approval from the President - which is routed through the Union home ministry - had not arrived.

- Alok K N Mishra

In the hours that followed, the Aam Aadmi Party government hit out at the chief secretary, accusing the bureaucrat of "sitting" on a file and not passing on the request for clarifications by the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) for three days until 2pm on Monday.

"The Budget was sent for MHA's approval as per regular practice well in advance on March 10. It is now learned that the MHA expressed some concerns on Delhi government's Budget and refused to give it approval through a letter sent to the chief secretary on March 17. For mysterious reasons, the chief secretary of Delhi kept the letter hidden for three days. I learned about it only at 2pm on March 20," said Delhi's finance minister, Kailash Gahlot.

The minister, who presented the city's economic survey earlier in the day, said the file was sent to him at 6pm. "Subsequently, we responded to MHA's concerns and submitted the file back to Delhi's lieutenant governor, after the chief minister's approval at 9pm on Monday," he said.

Chief secretary Naresh Kumar and principal secretary, finance, Ashish Chandra Verma did not respond to requests for a comment. The LG's office did not respond to requests for a comment.