Opposition slams Delhi budget, says it lacks vision

Leader of the opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said the budget had fewer allocations for development projects that could be taken up in the next one year.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress on Tuesday criticised the Delhi government’s budget for the year 2021-22, calling it “hollow” and “directionless” and “visionless”.

Deputy chief minister and finance minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia presented the budget on Tuesday. The Delhi Congress called the budget a pointless exercise. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

Leader of the opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said the budget had fewer allocations for development projects that could be taken up in the next one year.

“What is even more shocking is that there has been no mention of Trans-Yamuna Development Board or the Delhi Gramin Vikas Board in the budget, indicating the anti-rural and anti-people mindset of the Kejriwal government,” Bidhuri said.

“There is no concrete plan to deal with the menace of pollution in Delhi despite Delhi’s air turning poisonous and deadly. The budget is hollow, directionless, lacking in vision and is a tale of broken promises by the Kejriwal government. The people of Delhi have been left to fend for themselves,’’ the leader of the opposition added.

The Delhi Congress called the budget a pointless exercise. “It was a pointless exercise to sell a distant dream, as far away as 2047 when Delhi’s quality of living will be supposedly turned into Singapore-like, instead of addressing the existing issues, of here and now. They said that the budget proposals, instead of taking Delhi 100 years ahead, will drag it back by 100 years,” former Delhi minister Kiran Walia said.

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said the budget 2021-22 is silent on the present and states no short-term plans for Delhi.

“This must be the first state budget in the country which shows dreams to people for what could possibly happen 26 years later. The budget is silent on today’s deteriorating pollution and public transport situation in Delhi.