Delhi bureaucrats are burning midnight oil to prepare ‘Vote on Account’ Bill 2014-15 that is to be placed before Parliament for its consideration. Officials in the Delhi Government became hyperactive following a Presidential ‘directive’ to prepare the said Bill and place it before Parliament as Thursday will be last day of the last session of the current session.
This emergent situation arose due to lack of understanding of the parliamentary procedure. Interestingly, Chief Secretary of Delhi and his immediate subordinates were totally oblivious of the fact that Ordinance cannot be brought when Parliament session is going on. The day was saved for them after the President’s order was received by the Delhi Government through Ministry of Home Affairs. As a matter of fact, both Houses will be closed sine dine from Thursday.
The entire mess emanated from the irresponsible attitude of the former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who spent entire 49 days tenure preparing two Bills of Delhi Jan lokpal Bill and Delhi Swaraj Bill that gave him political credence but he forgot to address the core issue of governance where he was required to get the Budget passed to run the Government and meet expenditures from April 1 onwards. Now, Delhi Government has no money to spend on salary and other heads unless Vote on Account Bill is passed by Parliament.
Top sources said that as the President Office disapproved the idea of passing the Budget by Ordinance route, Delhi Government went into a spin on Wednesday evening as the entire Finance and Planning department officials were busy giving final shape to the Budget (read Vote on Account) 2014-15. In a communiqué to Delhi Government, President’s Office has directed the Delhi Government to bring the ‘Vote on Account’ and get it passed from Parliament by Thursday that is the last date of the current session. Officials of Delhi Government were left with no other options but to work for long hours to finalise sensitive Budget estimates of various departments before this is laid in the Parliament on February 20.
It would be pertinent to mention here that the top bureaucracy had convinced the lieutenant Governor on February 18 that the Budget 2014-15 can be passed by the President in the shape of an Ordinance. On his part, lieutenant Governor was generous to grant 10 days time to prepare the budget that was then to be forwarded to the President. The officials failed to apprise the lieutenant Governor that issuance of Ordinance was not possible when the Parliament is in session. This scenario became clear on Wednesday. Now, the Budget has to be presented in Parliament on Thursday morning as Friday (February 21) is the last working day of the House.