Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Shri Devender Yadav said that the absence of a strong political leadership in the BJP Government to get the wheels of development moving with time-bound project execution was clearly evident from the shocking revealation that only 36 per cent of the budgetary allocations have been spent by the various departments of the Rekha Gupta Government in its first six months in office, pointing to the fact that bureaucrats were still calling the shots, as they had done during the previous corrupt, directionless regime of Kejriwal’s AAP Government, to expose the hollow rhetoric of the BJP.
Presenting her maiden ₹1 lakh crore Budget
Devender Yadav said that Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, while presenting her maiden ₹1 lakh crore Budget with ten focus areas, including electricity, roads, water, and connectivity, had made many tall promises, calling it a “historic Budget”, with she emphasizing that the era of “corruption and inefficiency” was over. She had also announced that the government has doubled capital expenditure to Rs 28,000 crore, but the reports emanating after eight months in power by the BJP Government are shocking, prompting the newly-appointed Chief Secretary Rajev Verma to warn the heads of the 14 Government departments to submit reports about the amount spent on development works in their respective departments. He said that recent reports reveal that of the 36 departments reviewed, 14 had not submitted utilization reports at all while 22 others sent incomplete reports, without signatures from administrative secretaries, prompting the Chief Secretary to warn all the department heads that departmental performance would be judged primarily on execution speed, service delivery and full fund utilization, by removing administrative and procedural bottlenecks. He said that the sluggish pace of project execution shows that the Rekha Gupta Government has totally failed in the business of governance.
Fiscal year 2025-26 marks
Devender Yadav said that the Budget outlay for fiscal year 2025-26 marks a 31.5 per cent increase from the previous year, but it is not reflected at the ground level as the crumbling roads have not been repaired, and water remains a precious commodity as either they are getting polluted water infrequently or no water at all for days together. Devender Yadav said that while presenting the budget, CM Rekha Gupta, who also holds the Finance portfolio, had claimed that “this is not an ordinary Budget, this Budget is the first step to develop Delhi which was ruined in the past 10 years (by the Kejriwal Government)”, but the BJP Government has proved no better in getting worked executed by the bureaucrats, as it has not fulfilled any of its election promises, including cooking gas cylinder at subsidized rate of Rs 500 and Rs 2500 for every woman in the Capital, which even PM Modi had assured that would be decided in the very first Cabinet meeting of the BJP Government in Delhi.