Lot of noise, nothing on ground: BJP cites ‘outcome budget’ to slam Kejriwal

PTI, Jan 7, 2023, 5:31 PM IST

The BJP on Saturday accused the Arvind Kejriwal government of practicing “politics of advertisement and drama” and cited the Delhi government’s “outcome budget” to claim that no real work related to its big projects has been executed on the ground.

The outcome budget says only 418 of the 4,470 projects linked to the development fund allocated to MLAs have been completed this year, it noted.

“No work on the ground is taking place on the big ticket announcements made by Kejriwal,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told a press conference.

The Delhi government had announced a “rozgar budget” but its own outcome budget has said that nothing has been done on it so far, he said.

Patra said Chief Minister Kejriwal had claimed that his government will introduce a facility on mobile that will allow women in distress to reach out to police with the mere press of a button, but nothing has happened yet.

“Money is not being spent to carry out work on the ground but for Kejriwal’s publicity. There is lot of sound but nothing on ground,” he alleged.

Digital classrooms were promised but nothing happened and the outcome budget also says that only 37 per cent students benefited from the school uniform subsidy scheme, the BJP spokesperson said.

“The government promised in the budget that homeless children will be provided shelter and education. The outcome budget says no information is available and guidelines for the scheme are yet to be finalised,” he said.

The outcome budget is a progress card on what various ministries and departments have done with the outlays in the previous annual budget. It captures the progress of various schemes, programmes and projects and final deliverables from the citizens’ perspective.

Patra noted that Kejriwal had promised massive installation of CCTVs across the city to help probe crimes but only 60 per cent of the work has been finished.

And only half of the installed cameras are working, he added.

The Aam Aadmi Party government said the national capital will have food and shopping festivals, and identified five markets for promotion but the outcome is zero, Patra said.

He said it has not issued notification about its promised policy to promote start-ups.

The outcome budget says that only 418 of 4,470 projects linked to the development fund allocated to MLAs have been completed this year, Patra said.

“This is the truth of Arvind Kejriwal. What he says is different from what he does,” the BJP spokesperson said.

Nothing has happened on the promise to rejuvenate the Yamuna river while only 159 of the 1,708 road projects are nearing completion, he said.

Patra said Kejriwal has spoken a lot about curbing air pollution in Delhi, but nothing has been done.