"Never happened in history of India...": AAP's Raghav Chadha on Delhi budget row

New Delhi [India], March 21 (ANI): Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Raghav Chadha on Tuesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the Centre, and said that it was for the first time in the history of India that a budget of Delhi government was put on hold.
"It's been 75 years of India's Independence, and it has never happened in the history of the country that the Delhi government was stopped from presenting its budget," the AAP leader said while speaking to the media here.
He said, "Government was elected from a democratic process, and if it cannot present the budget in the state assembly, what else can it do?"
"If the budget is not passed, where the salary of government school teachers, and Mohalla clinic doctors will be given? From where medicines will come? And how hospital expenditure will be managed?..BJP government wants to stop each and everything," Raghav Chadha complained.
He further said that Bhartiya Janta Party is not taking revenge against Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and members of the AAP, but against the people of Delhi because they made BJP lose every election they contested in Delhi.
"For the past 25 years, BJP is unable to form its government in Delhi, and that is why BJP is doing this to the people of Delhi," the AAP leader added.
Earlier today, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena's office countered the Aam Aadmi Party's allegations of stalling the Delhi government budget scheduled for today stating that it was not "blocked" and the Kejriwal government's move to fix the date of its presentation before seeking the President's approval is "wrong" and displays the government's "mal-intent".
The LG office said that since Delhi is a Union Territory and not a state, the pre-approval of the President of India has been going on for the past 28 years.
Earlier today, Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged, "It is happening for the first time in the whole world that the central government has stopped the budget of any state."
Responding to the allegations, the Delhi LG office said, "Arvind Kejriwal, his ministers and the Aam Admi Party are very 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 Government. He has been saying that the Centre has blocked a "State's" Budget. This is patently false. Delhi is a Union Territory and not a State and therefore it is fully a part and partial of the Government of India. Moreover, the Budget has not been blocked."
Stating that the approval of the President's consent on the Budget of Delhi is provided in the Constitution, the statement said that the government's move to fix the date of presentation beforehand shows its "mal-intent".
"The Constitution provides that previous consent and approval of the President of India are required before laying the Budget of Delhi in the Legislative Assembly and this has been going on for the past 28 years without fail. Fixing the date for presentation of the Budget before seeking the President's approval for the Budget, in itself is wrong and shows mal-intent on the part of the AAP Government," it said. (ANI)