‘Govt-CS feud to prove costly’

New Delhi: Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely on Friday claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had taken on the bureaucracy at a wrong time, when it should have been busy holding deliberations over the Delhi’s budget.

He said that it was a matter of shame that chief secretary Anshu Prakash was assaulted by the AAP legislators in the presence of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Mr Lovely, who recently quit the BJP to rejoin  Congress, said it is a matter of great shame that the government chose to take on bureaucratic machinery at such a time. It could prove very detrimental for the the city.

“Such acts clearly reflect the lack of seriousness on the government’s part to carry out developmental works for Delhiites.”

He said the government  had failed to formulate the revised estimate for 2017-18 fiscal year as a result of which it had to surrender  several thousand crores of rupees.

Reeling of figures, Mr Lovely said, “The AAP government had to pay `4,024 crore in 2015-16 and `6,245 crore in 2016-17 from plan head expenditure.”

The Congress leader alleged that the government had not spent a single paisa for the capital works taken up by the public works department for weaker sections of the society, industries and fisheries.

“Almost 66 per cent of funds for health, 41 per cent for education and 89 per cent for social welfare  capital development funds remained unutilised till January this year,” Mr Lovely said.  

He claimed that of the 1,704 works sanctioned in 2016-17, only 787 actually started. “Only 31 per cent projects were completed during the same year.”  

Till 2016-17, the Congress leader said that the government used to prepare sector and department-wise monthly progress reports (MPRs).

“But in the name of the  presenting the quarterly outcome budget, the AAP government has discontinued the practice. Now we cannot even track the regular expenditure of this government.”