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This is an archive article published on March 23, 2023
Delhi budget: On subsidies, CM Kejriwal doubles down
Kejriwal also said the Yamuna will be cleaned before the 2025 Assembly polls and that he will take a dip before it.
Chief Minister Kejriwal and Finance Minister Gahlot on the way to present the Delhi Budget on Wednesday. Amit Mehra
Despite subsidies and incentives, Delhi’s growth is rising and running in profit, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Wednesday at a press conference in the Delhi Assembly on the budget. “The city will grow more if the Centre stops hindering its work,” he said.
The Rs 78,800-crore budget provides for capital expenditure of more than Rs 21,000 crore. The CM said this year’s budget will focus on infrastructure for Delhi — a clean, beautiful and modern city. “Till now, we have invested in education, health and power and those investments will continue, but this year’s budget will focus on infrastructure. Delhi is our capital city. When people come here, they should feel they have come to the capital city of a great nation.”
Kejriwal also said the Yamuna will be cleaned before the 2025 Assembly polls and that he will take a dip before it.
All free services will continue and the common man will get a breather from inflation, the CM further said. “All surveys show Delhi has the lowest inflation rate, and the reason is the government’s subsidies such as in electricity, water, health and free travel for women. It is obvious that a government requires money to provide free schemes and subsidies, but despite that, the AAP government is making profits while other governments are incurring losses even without providing any free schemes.”
“In 2014-15, the overall budget was Rs 30,940 crore, and today, it is Rs 78,800 crore. This is because Delhi has an honest government. India’s growth rate is 9% while it is 7% in Delhi,” he added.
The CM also claimed the Centre has blocked Rs 325 crore to Delhi from its pool of taxes. “If you stop feeding the hen that lays golden egg, how will it lay eggs? Delhi gives employment to the entire country, gives money and wealth… We may move court.”
On the tussle between the Centre and AAP, he said, “Ever since we entered politics, we’ve been struggling… We’ve gone to jail, got beaten up. They put Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain in prison. They have threatened other ministers and even me. If putting Kejriwal behind bars can lead to the country’s progress, do it, we don’t care.”
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The CM also alleged the L-G is not appointing a regular PWD secretary due to which several projects are pending: “… In February, I announced the 1,400 km road redevelopment project. The tender was supposed to be finalised by April 1, but the L-G is not letting it happen…”
Meanwhile, the opposition hit out at the budget, terming it “directionless”. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and BJP leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri argued that only Rs 15,772 crore had been kept aside for infrastructure schemes. “While responding to the L-G, AAP leaders said Rs 22,000 crore had been kept for… infrastructure. Last year too, only Rs 16,271 crore was kept but in revised budget it has been reduced to Rs 13,335 crore only,” he alleged.
DPCC communications department chairman and former MLA Anil Bhardwaj said it was “a prasar-prachar budget, which was old wine in a new bottle without vision or policy direction”.
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