Centre conspired to stall Delhi budget: Aam Aadmi Party

The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday alleged that the Centre conspired to stall Delhis Budget and said March 21 was a black day as an elected government was prevented from presenting it in assembly on its scheduled dayThe presentation of the 202324 Budget which was scheduled for Tuesday was put on hold by the Union home ministry as it sought a clarification from the Delhi government on its allocations under different headsIt is sad and unfortunate that Delhis Budget was stalled by the Centre party leader Dilip Pandey said while addressing a press conference hours after the ministry approved the BudgetThe Aam Aadmi Party AAP leader said that an elected government was prevented from presenting its Budget in the assembly Today is a black day An elected government was not allowed to present the Budget in the assembly It never happened in the history of India The beauty of democracy is that everybody is answerable he saidIts been 10 days the Delhi Budget was with the Centre They did not act for the last 10 days They knew that if they want to stop the budget from being presented they need to do something at the 11th hour Pandey saidClaiming that the Centre instead of sending the file back to the Arvind Kejriwal government forwarded it to the chief secretary he said this action has shaken the roots of Indias democratic systemsAlso readRahul Gandhi writes to speaker seeking permission to respond to scurrilous allegations by centreWe claim that India is the biggest democracy in the world worlds most vibrant democratic system The reason for this claim is that the roots of democratic values are very deep Pandey saidThe Centre today has tried to dig out the strong roots of democracy The news is being planted from the Raj Niwas residence of the Lt Governor The news is being planted Useless reasons are being used he saidIn the assembly on Tuesday Chief Minister Kejriwal said The budget had to be presented today The Centre stopped it We replied to Ministry of Home Affairs MHAs query without making any changes to the budget and they have approved it now They wanted me to bow down Its their ego and nothing elseEarlier AAP national spokesperson and Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said it was utterly shameful that the Budget had been stopped This is making a joke of us in front of the entire world It is shameful that the Centre is stopping the Budget of a small state he saidBharadwaj said the MHA had expressed some concerns on the Delhi governments Budget and refused to grant its approval in a letter sent to the chief secretary on March 17He sat on it for three days This is bigger than any antinational activity This should be investigated The Centre is behind this conspiracy and the budget is being delayed at its behest he allegedThe senior AAP leader said the budget is a sacrosanct document and a secret exercise How can a babu sitting at the Centre question the expenditure of the government he askedSources in the Lt Governors office accused Kejriwal his ministers and the AAP of deliberately making false statements with the sole purpose of misleading the people of Delhi and the media and distracting them from the failures of the AAP governmentHe has been saying that the Centre has blocked a States Budget This is patently false Delhi is a Union Territory and not a State and therefore it is fully a part and parcel of the Government of India Moreover the Budget has not been blocked said a source at the LG officeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever