New Delhi: Delhi Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot on Monday alleged that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has halted Delhi’s annual budget which was scheduled to be presented in Assembly on Tuesday.
“For the first time in India’s history, the MHA has stopped the Delhi government from presenting its annual budget for 2023-24 on its scheduled date on March 21. The budget was sent for MHA’s approval as per regular practice well in advance on March 10,” he said.
He said that the MHA expressed some concerns on Delhi government’s budget and refused to give it approval through a letter sent to the Chief Secretary on March 17.
“For mysterious reasons, the Chief Secretary of Delhi kept the letter hidden for three days. I learned about the letter only at 2 p.m. today (Monday). The file with MHA’s letter was put up to me officially only at 6 p.m. today i.e. just the day before the budget was to be presented in Delhi Assembly,” the Gahlot said.
The Finance Minister also said the government has responded to the MHA’s concerns and submitted the file back to Delhi’s LG, after CM’s approval at 9 p.m. The role of the Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary of Delhi in delaying Delhi’s budget ought to be investigated, he asked.
“Nearly Rs 22,000 crores have been allocated for capital expenditure next year, whereas the allocation for advertisements is only Rs 550 crore, which is similar to that of last year. The concerns raised by the MHA are irrelevant and seemingly done only to scuttle the budget for next year of Delhi government,” he claimed.
New Delhi: Delhi BJP and the Congress on Monday termed the Delhi government’s Outcome Budget an “attempt to deceive” the people and “hide their failure”.
Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri alleged that a “white lie” has been presented in the name of Outcome Budget.
“The AAP government has not not fulfilled its promise to provide 20 lakh jobs in Delhi, yet no action plan was presented for this. They (AAP) did not fulfil their promise to rejuvenate five markets of Delhi and generate employment,” Bidhuri said.
He further alleged that the government “lied” about the pass percentage of class 10 and class 12 in its Outcome Budget.
“The Delhi government had announced to bring 15,000 buses on the roads of the capital, but 250 electric buses were brought in a year. The marshals in the buses have been removed due to non-payment of salaries.
“The Ashram flyover has been described as an achievement, while its work has not yet been completed, nor has it been fully operational,” he alleged.
“The AAP government deceived the people of Delhi through its outcome budget,” Delhi BJP said.
The Delhi Congress alleged that the AAP “wrongly presented the statistics to mislead people”.
Party’s president Anil Chaudhary alleged the AAP government’s Delhi model of education and health care was a “mere stunt”.
“The AAP government is misleading the public by presenting wrong statistics in their outcome budget. Such models do not exist at the ground level,” he alleged.
“The Outcome Budget was a ploy to hide the failures of the AAP government,” Delhi Congress said.
New Delhi: Like-minded opposition parties are likely to meet on Monday in Parliament to chalk out a strategy to the floor of the House.
The meeting is likely to be held at Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge’s office in Parliament.
Notably, the proceedings in the two Houses of Parliament were disrupted for the fifth day on Friday as the ruling BJP and opposition parties sought to vociferously raise their issues.
The acrimony continued to play out outside the Parliament with leaders from BJP and Congress targeting each other over Rahul Gandhi’s remarks and the Adani issue.
After the Lok Sabha met for the day, opposition members came near the Speaker’s podium over their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Hindenburg-Adani row. The BJP members raised the demand for an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks in the United Kingdom, alleging that they had maligned institutions in the country.
Congress alleged that the audio was muted after they raised slogans that Rahul Gandhi should be allowed to respond to allegations of BJP leaders against him.
Congress members alleged that there was no audio for about 20 minutes of the House proceedings.
Government sources said the audio was muted due to a “technical fault”.
The Rajya Sabha also witnessed disruptions and was adjourned for the day. The House earlier took up some of the listed business.
The second part of the Budget session began on March 13.
BJP leaders continued to mount attack on Rahul Gandhi outside the Parliament over his remarks during visit to United Kingdom.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda said Rahul Gandhi has become a permanent part of the “anti-nationalist toolkit”.
“It is unfortunate that the Congress party is indulging in anti-national activities. After being repeatedly rejected by the nation, Rahul Gandhi has now become a permanent part of this anti-nationalist toolkit,” Nadda told ANI.
He accused Rahul Gandhi of seeking “intervention of another country in the internal matters of India”.
“Rahul Gandhi, what is your intention when you demand the intervention of another country in the internal matters of India? At a time when India is becoming the 5th largest economy in the world and G20 meetings are being held here, Rahul Gandhi on foreign soil is insulting the nation and the Parliament,” Nadda said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hit back at Nadda over his remarks against Rahul Gandhi.
“They (BJP) themselves are anti-national. They never took part in India’s freedom movement, worked for the Britishers and they are calling others anti-national? They are doing this to deviate from issues of unemployment and inflation,” Kharge alleged.
“Can Rahul Gandhi ever be anti-national? Are people who debate about democracy anti-national?. I condemn JP Nadda’s remarks. There is no point of apologising. We will give a strong reply to this in the Parliament. Rahul Gandhi will himself reply on this, that’s why they (BJP) are scared,” he asked.
Kharge alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “insulted” the country on multiple occasions.
“PM Modi said people and businessman say that what sin I committed to have born in India’. Those who insulted the people of the country is calling us anti-national? First, he should apologize,” Kharge said.
Rahul Gandhi refused to respond to Nadda’s jibe against him.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur hit out at Rahul Gandhi over his “unfortunately I am MP” remark at a press conference which he subsequently corrected after being checked by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
The clip of the press conference where Rahul Gandhi is being corrected by Jairam Ramesh went viral.
“Sometimes, the truth comes out naturally, and as Rahul rightly said, unfortunately, he is a member of the Parliament, because of the way he uses foreign soil to defame and spread lies about the same prestigious institution, the Parliament of India, of which unfortunately he is a member,” Thakur told ANI.
“Today ‘RAHUL’ stands for ‘Regretful Awful Hateful Ungrateful Liar,’” he added.
The Union Minister said that Rahul should come and issue an unconditional apology.
“But he is still putting conditions to that. Is he above the rule of the land? Is he above the rules and procedures of the House? Does the Gandhi family still feel that they are above the country and the Parliament?” Thakur asked.
“He (Rahul Gandhi) has to understand that the Parliament is run as per the rules and procedure of the House and as per the direction given by the honourable Speaker. But that can only happen if he comes to the House and reads the rules and procedures. I believe he will understand that and come and apologise to the House and the Parliament,” Thakur added.
Rahul said on Thursday hoped to speak in Parliament in detail after four ministers made allegations against him over his remarks in the United Kingdom.
“So, if Indian democracy was functioning, I would be able to say my piece in Parliament. So, actually what you are seeing, is a test of Indian democracy. After four leaders of the BJP have made an allegation about a Member of Parliament, is that Member of Parliament going to be given the same space that those four Ministers have been given or is he going to be told to shut up? That’s what the real question in front of this country is right now,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor defended Rahul Gandhi and there is nothing he should apologise for.
“Rahul Gandhi never demanded foreign forces come to our country to save our democracy. He hasn’t said anything he should apologise for. It’s nonsense,” Tharoor told ANI.
“Democracy, in our country, is in danger and everyone should know about it. I didn’t hear anything wrong in it”, added Congress MP Tharoor.
In his lecture at Cambridge University Rahul Gandhi had said that everybody knows and it’s been in the news a lot “that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack”.
The first week of the second part of the budget session of Parliament has been marred by disruptions with the two Houses not able to conduct any major business. The budget session of parliament will conclude on April 6.
New Delhi: With the whole of last week’s parliamentary proceedings having been washed out without transacting any business, owing to disruptions by treasury benches and opposition members, Government only has two weeks to get the Union budget for 2023-2024 passed in Parliament.
As per norms, the Union budget needs to be passed in both Houses of Parliament before the end of the financial year, i.e. prior to March 31, 2023.
Therefore, in the forthcoming week starting from Monday, the government may try to get the process of budget clearance started.
Normally, demands grants for some key ministries like railways and agriculture are taken up for discussion and voting in Lok Sabha.
After these are voted for, since there is no time to take up demands for grants for each and every department, the Speaker applies guillotine on all such outstanding demands for grants, and they are put up for voting, whether discussed or not.
Once this is done, the government introduces the Appropriation Bill, seeking approval for withdrawing funds from the Consolidated Fund of India.
After this bill is passed, it becomes the Appropriate Act. After voting on Appropriation Bill, the finance bill is taken up for consideration.
According to sources, the government on Monday may try to take up for discussion and voting, demanding grants for the railway ministry for 2023-24 in Lok Sabha.
Apart from this, Lok Sabha may also take up a general discussion on the budget for the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir for 2023-24.
In addition to this, discussion and voting on the demands for grants for Jammu and Kashmir for 2023-24 may also be taken up this week.
If at all Lok Sabha manages to function smoothly, it may also take up discussion and voting, the supplementary demands for grants for Jammu and Kashmir for 2022-23.
The government will also try and get the parliament’s approval for the second batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2022-23.
SHOPIAN, MARCH 16: The District Development Commissioner (DDC) Shopian, Sachin Kumar Vaishya today chaired a meeting at Mini-Secretariat here to review the progress under District Capex 2022-23, besides discussing the plan formation for the FY 2023-24.
The DDC discussed sector-wise works projected under Plan Formulation 2023-24 and took a detailed Block wise and Panchayat wise review of the physical and financial achievements of the works taken up under the Capex Budget 2022-23.
He also emphasised that demands projected under the B2V component of Aspirational Panchayats and Towns should be duly incorporated. He said that all the works identified for 2023- 2024 and completed during the year 2022- 2023 must be depicted at Panchayat buildings.
The DDC exhorted for the early completion of ongoing works and timely billing as per the norms and stressed to avoid unnecessary lapse of funds.
Threadbare discussion on the physical and financial implications of each work was held in the meeting and concerned officers were directed to ensure that the works are incorporated on the judicious and rational basis so that no overlapping of works is conceived during the next FY plan.
The meeting was informed that against the set target of 1599 works, 1535 works have been completed during the year 2022- 2023 till date.
Among others Joint Director Planning Shopian, Khursheed Ahmed Khatana; ACD, CEO, Engineers from R&B, PDD, PHE, PMGSY, JKPCC, Sectoral/District officers, BMO, Shopian, BDOs and other concerned were present.
Srinagar, Mar 15: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha he was thankful to Centre for releasing a compact budget for the J&K which is aimed at building ‘Naya J&K’ under which special focus will indeed remain on security. He said that Tourism, Youth Empowerment, Education, Industrial investment will be top priorities in the years ahead.
Talking to reporters on the side-lines of a function in Jammu, the LG as per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said that security indeed is a primary concern which has been duly taken care off in the J&K Budget announced by the Centre. “But Tourism, Youth Empowerment, Education and Industrial investment will be the top priorities that have been addressed in the Budget,” he said. The LG said that 70 per cent of the J&K population is dependent on Agriculture and its allied sectors. “This is our top priority and the budget allocation for Agriculture and its allied sectors have been addressed through huge allocation,” he said.
He said that the computer based examinations that were deferred yesterday will be conducted once Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board will be fully satisfied and that exams will be held soon.
He said that the transparency is a top priority for them and if there is any iota of doubt that will be addressed. The LG said that the recruitments will be done based on merit and transparency is the top priority for them and there will be no compromise on it.
Replying to a question, Sinha said 47 employees have been dismissed from their services as they were having militancy links.
“The statement I made a day before about jobs were given to militants was based on facts as action has already been taken against many people,” he said—(KNO)
LONDON — “Better than the last guy” might not be quite the tagline every world leader hopes for. It could yet be Rishi Sunak’s winning formula.
The British prime minister, swept into office late last year by wave after wave of Tory psychodrama, has cleared several major hurdles in the space of the past month. His success has even sparked a shocking rumor in Westminster that — whisper it — he might actually be quite good at his job.
That was the murmur among hopeful Conservative MPs ahead of this week’s U.K. budget, anyway — many of them buoyed by the PM’s recent moves on two long-running sources of angst in Westminster.
First came an apparent resolution to the intractable problem of post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland. Sunak’s so-called Windsor Framework deal with Brussels landed to near-universal acclaim.
A week later, Sunak unveiled hard-hitting legislation to clamp down on illegal migration to the U.K., coupled with an expensive deal with France to increase patrols across the English Channel. Tory MPs were delighted. The Illegal Migration Bill sailed through parliament Monday night without a single vote of rebellion.
Then came Wednesday’s annual budget announcement, with Sunak hoping to complete an improbable hat trick.
It started well, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt making the big reveal that the U.K. is no longer expected to enter recession this year, as had been widely predicted.
But a series of jaw-droppers in the budget small print show the scale of the challenge ahead.
The U.K.’s overall tax take remains sky-high by historic standards — an ominous bone of contention for skeptical Tory MPs and right-wing newspapers alike. Meanwhile, millions of Britons’ living standards continue to fall, thanks to high fuel bills and raging inflation. U.K. growth forecasts remain sluggish for years to come.
“He’s chalking up some wins,” observed one former party adviser grimly, “because he’s going to need them.”
‘Workmanlike’
Among all but the bitterest of Sunak’s Tory opponents, there is a palpable sense of relief about the way he has approached his premiership so far.
“It doesn’t mean everything will suddenly turn to gold,” said Conservative MP Richard Graham, a longtime Sunak-backer. “But like Ben Stokes and England’s cricket team, his quiet self-confidence may change what the same team believes is possible.”
Nicky Morgan, a Conservative peer and former Treasury minister, praised a “workmanlike” budget that would reassure voters and the party there was a “firm hand on the tiller” after the “turmoil” of the preceding year with two prime ministers stepping down, Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss.
UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt meets children during a visit to Busy Bees Battersea Nursery in south London after delivering his Budget earlier in the day | Stefan Rousseau/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Most of Wednesday’s biggest announcements, including an extra £4 billion for childcare and a decision to lift the cap on pensions allowances, were either trailed or leaked in advance. This may have made for a predictable budget speech, but as Morgan put it: “I think that’s probably what businesses and the public need at the moment.”
An ex-minister who did not originally support Sunak for leader said that the general tone of the budget, together with the Northern Ireland deal and small boats legislation, meant that “increasingly it’s hard for hostile voices to pin real failure on Rishi.”
Others, however, fear key announcements could yet unravel. An expensive change to pension taxes was instantly savaged by critics as a “giveaway for the 1 percent.” Headline-grabbing back-to-work programs and an expansion of free childcare will take years to kick in.
Hiking corporation tax was the “biggest mistake of the budget,” Truss ally and former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg complained.
Doing the hard yards
Observers note that in the wake of the rolling chaos under Truss and Johnson, the bar for a successful government has been lowered.
“[Sunak] could stand at the podium and soil himself, and he’d be doing a better job than his predecessors,” noted one business group lobbyist on Wednesday evening, having watched budget day unfold.
But even Sunak’s fiercest critics praise his work rate and attention to detail, in sharp contrast to Johnson. Most accept — grudgingly — he has set up an effective Downing Street operation.
Having returned from his Paris summit last Friday evening, the PM kicked off budget week with a whirlwind trip to the west coast of California to launch a defense pact with the U.S. and Australia, arranging a bank bailout along the way. He landed back in the U.K. less than 24 hours before Hunt unveiled the annual spending plan.
“It turns out working like an absolute maniac and being forensic is quite useful,” one of his ministers said.
Another Tory MP added: “He’s got the brainpower and will do the hours. He’s not good at barnstorming politics or old school dividing lines — but he is good for the politics we have right now.”
There has also been a clear effort to run a tighter ship behind the scenes at No. 10. One veteran of Johnson’s Downing Street said the atmosphere seemed “calm” in comparison.
There are tentative signs that voters are starting to notice.
James Johnson, who ran a recent poll by JL Partners which showed Sunak’s personal ratings are on the up, said the PM’s growing reputation as a “fixer” seems to be behind his recent rally, and that the biggest increase on his polling scorecard was on his ability to “get things done.”
It remains to be seen if this will shift the dial on the Tory Party’s own disastrous ratings, however, which languish some 25 points behind the opposition Labour Party. “Voters have clearly lost trust in the Tories,” Johnson said. “But if government can deliver … I would expect it to feed through.”
Anthony Browne, a Tory MP elected in 2019, expressed hope that Sunak had begun “changing the narrative” which in turn “could restore our right to be heard.”
Trouble ahead?
Sunak will be well aware that plenty of recent budgets — not least Truss’ spectacular failure last September — have unraveled in the 72 hours after being announced.
And while expanding free childcare, incentivizing business investment and ending the lifetime pensions allowance were all crowd-pleasers for his own MPs, they were not enough to conceal worrying subheadings.
The tax take is predicted to reach a post-war high of 37.7 percent in the next five years, while disposable incomes are hit by fiscal drag pulling 3.2 million people into higher tax bands. Right-wing Tories are not impressed.
Ranil Jayawardena, founder of the Conservative Growth Group of backbench MPs, described it in a statement as “an effective income tax rise,” which will be “a concern to many.”
Net migration is set to rise to 245,000 a year by 2026-27, and will add more people to the labor force than all the measures intended to make it a “back to work” budget, according to the Whitehall’s fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The message is not one Conservative MPs want to hear.
Already singled out by Labour’s Keir Starmer as a “huge giveaway to the wealthiest,” scrapping the lifetime allowance on pensions will cost £835 million a year by 2027-28 while benefiting less than 4 percent of workers. Conservative MPs reply that NHS doctors are one of the main groups to benefit.
Perhaps most worrying of all, the government’s own budget expects living standards to fall by 6 percent this year and next — less than the 7 percent fall predicted in November but still the largest two-year fall since records began in the 1950s.
There are some problems that can’t be solved by pulling an all-nighter. Ironically for Sunak, whose career was made in the Treasury, his may prove to be the state of the U.K. economy.
Rosa Prince, Stefan Boscia and Dan Bloom contributed reporting.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
SRINAGAR: National Conference (NC) on Tuesday said the budgetary allocations for J&K for the year 2023-2024 have failed to cater to the needs of people of J&K saying it has nothing substantial for J&K’s trade, industry and commerce.
In response to the budgetary allocations for J&K, the party’s state spokesperson, Imran Nabi Dar, stated that it was all “flamboyance and wordplay.”
According to him, “There is nothing for unemployed youth. No blueprint on job creation for youth. We have lakhs of unemployed youths in J&K. There was not even a single word about addressing the plight of contractual, daily wagers and need-based employees. There is no ray of hope for our unemployed and skilled youth. They have been forsaken.”
Imran commented on the budget, highlighting that it was the fifth budget in a row that was not passed by the elected legislature of Jammu and Kashmir. He questioned the reasoning behind this, stating, “The exercise itself raises a question why an entire populace of nearly 1.40 Cr people continues to remain without a representative Assembly. An elected Assembly could have discussed and ascertained the needs and aspirations of the people of JK before tabling annual budgetary allocations and estimates. It is again for the fifth time that the concerned stakeholders were not consulted before the tabling of the budget.”
“There is nothing substantial for the horticulture sector of J&K. We expected them to announce a waiver on the KCC loans and bring down the GST rates on packaging items. Their claims of boosting horticulture and other allied sectors have remained restricted to statements only. No steps have been taken to augment fruit processing infrastructure either,” he said.
There is no handholding of artisans, marginal traders, transporters, hawkers, and start-ups, he said, adding that the budget has failed to fulfill the needs and aspirations of all the stakeholders across Jammu and Kashmir.
Ruing the failure of the government in upgrading the connectivity of Kashmir with the rest of the country, he said that there is nothing substantial for the upgradation and augmentation of Mughal road, Kishtwar-Sinthan road, Sadna top, and other road projects. (KNO)
BRUSSELS — The EU is finalizing a €2 billion deal to jointly restock Ukraine’s dwindling ammunition supplies while refilling countries’ stocks, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
The plan has two major elements.
First, the EU will spend €1 billion to partially reimburse countries that can immediately donate ammunition from their own stockpiles. Secondly, countries will work together to jointly purchase €1 billion in new ammunition — the idea being that together they can negotiate bigger contracts at a lower price-per-shell.
EU ambassadors will discuss the proposal — prepared by the EU’s diplomatic wing, the European External Action Service — during a meeting on Wednesday.
The scheme — which POLITICO first reported on earlier this month — has come together rapidly in recent weeks in response to Ukraine’s pleas for more ammunition, specifically the 155-millimeter artillery shells it desperately needs to both hold territory and launch a spring counteroffensive.
And the figures, one of the documents notes, respond “to a specific request made by the Ukrainian minister of defense.”
The numbers are stark.
Estonia, which helped start the conversation in February about how the EU could jointly help fill a looming munitions shortage, has estimated that Russia is burning through 20,000-60,000 shells per day while Ukraine is trying to judiciously only use between 2,000 and 7,000.
Covering that figure will not come easy — or cheap.
Thus far, EU countries have only provided Ukraine with 350,000 155-millimeter shells in total, with the EU spending €450 million on partial reimbursements, said one EU official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic. But the official pegged the cost for each new shell at €4,000, meaning costs are growing.
To cover both the losses of countries dipping into their stockpiles and funding new ammunition buys, the EU is tapping the so-called European Peace Facility. The little-known fund sits outside of the EU’s normal budget, giving officials the flexibility to use it to cover weapons purchases — once a verboten concept within the EU, a self-proclaimed peace project.
Thus far, the facility has been used solely to partially reimburse countries for their weapons donations to Ukraine. Now, documents show countries are willing to funnel an additional €2 billion into the facility — €1 billion to cover some ammunition donations and €1 billion to support joint purchases of replacement shells.
Ukrainian artillerymen in the vicinity of Bakhmut, Donetsk | Ihor Tkachov/AFP via Getty Images
The documents foresee the European Defense Agency, an EU agency meant to better coordinate members’ security efforts, possibly playing a role in coordinating the joint procurement efforts. But individual countries could also help spearhead these negotiations, as long as the country is working with at least two other EU members and not creating competing bids for the shells that drive up prices.
The joint procurement plan covers not just EU countries but Norway as well — as POLITICO first reported — potentially opening the door to some of the money going to non-EU-based companies. Norway, however, which produces ammunition, is already relatively integrated into the EU market.
EU officials are now aiming to get a consensus agreement on the plan during a meeting on Monday of foreign and defense ministers, before getting final sign-off from the 27 EU leaders at a summit in Brussels.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
