MHA approves Delhi Budget amid row between AAP and BJP

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday gave its green signal to the Delhi government for presenting the budget for the capital, after initially blocking its presentation leading to a war of words between the Centre and AAP.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a dig at the Centre over its objection on allocation for advertisement, saying "uneducated" people were posted from top to bottom but offered an olive branch with a remark that he wanted to work together with his "elder brother" Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the welfare of Delhiites.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal had shot off a letter to Modi urging him not to stop the Budget while Delhi Assembly passed a resolution for a probe by the Privileges Committee to the alleged role of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, Finance Secretary A C Verma and other officials in causing a delay in the presentation of the budget.

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The Budget was to be presented on Tuesday but after the Lieutenant Governor objected to certain provisions, the MHA did not give its clearance for its presentation.

As the AAP hit out at the Centre, sources said the MHA had sought clarification from the AAP government on the budget proposal for advertisement, which was said to be on the higher side and low fund allocation for infrastructure and other development initiatives.

Following this, sources said the government addressed the concerns of the MHA and sent it to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Monday. He approved it and sent it back to the Delhi government, which in turn forwarded it to the MHA.

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Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot told the Assembly that the government had sent the budget papers to the MHA on March 10, which returned it to the Chief Secretary on March 17 raising concerns. However, he claimed, the Chief Secretary brought the issue before him only on Monday evening.

"I came to know about it around 2 pm. I asked the chief secretary and the finance secretary several times and finally around 6 pm, I saw the file and it was sent to the L-G, after the Chief Minister's approval," Gahlot said in the assembly.

Kejriwal in the assembly said that they replied to the MHA's query without making any changes to the budget and they have approved it now. "They wanted me to bow down. It's their ego and nothing else," he added.

BJP MLA Vijender Gupta gave a notice for breach of privilege over leak of budget details while the AAP accused him of disrupting the proceedings. He was then suspended for a year from the Assembly.