‘Bunch of illiterate people from top to bottom’: Kejriwal on Delhi Budget row

New Delhi: Addressing the ongoing Delhi assembly session over the budget row, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that “there is a bunch of illiterate people from top to bottom”.

He said, “Yesterday, the news was going on that the budget for advertisement was more than that of infrastructure. While the budget of infrastructure is Rs 20,000 crore and that of advertisement is Rs 550 crore. There is a bunch of illiterate people from top to bottom.”

“Today the budget of Delhi was to be presented in the House. But the Centre put a hold on that and we couldn’t present the budget today (Tuesday). This is not only a constitutional crisis, it is an attack on the constitution,” CM Kejriwal said.

He said that it is against the basic structure of the Constitution that the budget of Delhi is being sent to the Centre. However, we follow this tradition, but for the first time such an intervention has come to the fore.

Kejriwal further said, “We had the option to go to the court on the issue but we replied their four observations. Finally, the Centre has approved the budget.”

On the observation noted down by Lt Governor V.K. Saxena, Kejriwal said, “As per the constitution, LG has no such right to make any observations. The Constitution and the order of the Supreme Court say that except in three cases, the LG will approve all the files, he has no right to write on the files.”

Accusing Centre for delaying in budget approval, the CM claimed, “The officers are all scared of the Centre. They got an order from the MHA to stop the budget file for three days. Our minister called repeatedly and then file was sent at six in the evening. What did they get…this is what made Kejriwal bow down. This was done only to satisfy the ego.”

“I appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that we do not need to fight. Where there is a fight in the house, state and the country, they get destroyed. If we work together we will progress,” Kejriwal said in his address to the House.

After the address of the Chief Minister, the House has been adjourned for Wednesday. Delhi Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot will now present the budget on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP Working President Virendra Sachdeva and Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri in a joint press conference on Tuesday alleged that Kejriwal is again intentionally telling lies to defame the central government.

Delhi BJP spokespersons Harish Khurana and Praveen Shankar Kapoor were also present during the press conference.

Virendra Sachdeva said that every year the budget proposal of the Delhi Government is sent to the Union Home Ministry for approval through the Lt. Governor and the date of the budget is given only after the approval of the Ministry but the Kejriwal government did not wait for the approval of the budget and announced the date itself.

He said that Kejriwal kept patting the back of his government in the assembly session after Lt. Governor’s address but during the session he did not mention that there were some objections on the budget which had to be rectified and resent.

IANS