Budget: AAP says its "pro-poor", Oppn "disappointing"

The Aam Aadmi Party today hailed the Delhi budget as "pro-poor" and "pro-middle class", even as the Opposition slammed the finance bill as "disappointing".
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the AAP government has not imposed any new tax for the third consecutive year.
Finance Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said every section of the society was in his mind while preparing the budget.
Picking holes, the BJP said the budget is "disappointing" and has remained silent on several key projects like setting up of CCTVs, free wifi and women's safety while the Congress said, contrary to the government's claim, the economy of Delhi is slowing.

"It is a wonderful budget for poor and middle class people. Delhi government has tabled zero-tax budget. No new tax has been introduced in this budget.
"Earlier, a major part of public money went into corruption, but since we have come to power, public money is being saved due to which we are investing more money in education, health and infrastructure projects," Kejriwal said.

Hitting out at the Kejriwal government, Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said the budget is mum on key projects like the mohalla clinics and increasing the number of buses on the city roads.
Tiwari also slammed the government on its "insensitivity towards legislative proceedings" over the delay in presenting the budget by 15 minutes due to lack of quorum in the House.

Sharmistha Mukherjee, chief spokesperson of Delhi Congress termed the budget as "anti-development".
She said, according to the Economic Survey, Delhi's economic growth has slowed down for the first time in five years from 8.82 per cent in 2015-16 to 8.26 per cent in 2016-17.
"The revenue receipts have fallen short by Rs 4,468.93 crore than the estimate and the fiscal surplus of Delhi has come down from 1.9 per cent of GSDP in 2013-14, the last year of the Congress government, to 0.24 per cent of GSDP in 2015-16.
"We fear that from a fiscal surplus state, Delhi might even become a fiscal deficit state," Mukherjee said.

Slamming the budget, Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav said it obfuscates more than it reveals with selective presentation of favourable statistics and non-acknowledgment of limits and challenges.
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Dubbing the Kejriwal government's budget as
"disappointing", Tiwari said the budget has disappointed all sections of people but today on the International Women's Day, it has been "most disappointing" for women, also for the youths as it "lacked attention" on their welfare.
"The government has not made any provision for women safety including installation of CCTV cameras," he said, adding even after two years in power the government is "avoiding" talking about free wi-fi service and opening of new colleges and schools have become a "distant dream".

Tiwari said the budget presented before the MCD elections scheduled in April, made no mention of implementation of recommendations of the 4th Delhi Finance Commission indicating no change in poor financial condition of the civic bodies in the future.
"There is no provision or indication for implementing the recommendations of Fourth Delhi Finance Commission, meaning thereby the financial condition of the municipal corporations will not improve and there is no possibility of improvement in sanitation work in near future," he said.
Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta termed the budget as "vague" and "lacking any time frame" for the implementation of various measures.

"Kejriwal government's much publicised outcome budget turns out to be a vague concept. It is doomed to be a failure as it has no time-frame for step-by-step implementation of the various measures proposed by the government," he said.
He alleged that the budget speech by Deputy CM and Finance minister Manish Sisodia was delayed by 10 minutes as the quorum of the House could not be completed as only 25 out of 67 AAP MLAs were present in the Assembly.
"Sisodia's speech was nothing but an ambitious and clever exercise to hide failure and inability of the Delhi Government to achieve the targets set in previous budget," he charged.

Meanwhile, Delhi Congress hit out at the AAP government for dishing out "false hopes and promises" in its budget.
"AAP's Third Budget out of five. Still false hopes, promises and Pilot projects First at least match Congress performance!," Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken said in his tweet.
He also slammed the government on different fronts including education, purchase of new buses, delay in metro rail projects among others.
"Prove if you have purchased a single Bus, If you have stared&finished single new flyover-A new hospital! Why is Metro delayed by 2yrs?," he tweeted.
Mukherjee also said it is aimed to "hide failures" of the AAP government's two years in power.

"The Kejriwal government too has turned into a 'Jumla Sarkar' like the Narendra Modi government," she said.