Govt vs babus fight plays out on floor of the House

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government legislators on Monday accused officials in the finance department of impeding the flow of funds to various government schemes, "causing suffering" to the residents of Delhi.

- Alok K N Mishra 

The Opposition hit back, saying the officers had become "vigilant" due to corruption cases.

Speaking in the ongoing session of the Delhi legislative assembly, the MLAs said that "hindrance" caused by the finance department stalled various important projects related to Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and maintenance of water supply across various colonies in the Capital.

This is not the first time that the assembly, dominated by the AAP, has had a confrontation with bureaucrats who effectively report to Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena, who in turn reports to the Bharatiya Janata. Party-led Union government.

Speaking in the House, Delhi finance minister Atishi said the BJP knows that, no matter how hard they try, they will not be able to defeat Arvind Kejriwal, therefore they are using bureaucracy to stop development work in Delhi.

"When people face problems like overflowing sewer, water supply, they reach out to their MLAs. In the last eight years, unprecedented work has taken place under the Kejriwal government in Delhi. Under AAP the size of the annual budget has increased from around 30,000 crore in 2014-15 to 278,800 crore 201 -24. There is no crisis of funds despite several free schemes, but the finance department is not ready to release the funds to any department which is ultimately causing hardships to people," Atishi said while concluding a discussion on the topic, "hindrances created by the Finance Department in the functioning of Public Works Department, Delhi Jal Board and Health Department".