Dikshit govt piling up miseries on common man: BJP

Accusing the city government of piling up "miseries" on the common man, BJP today demanded immediate roll back of the withdrawal of subsidy on cooking gas and VAT on a range of items including diesel and CNG. 

The BJP MLAs vociferously raised the issue in the Delhi assembly and charged the government of making the citizens pay a "heavy price" in the pretext of Commonwealth Games.

Almost all the opposition MLAs resorted to slogan shouting against the government but allowed the House to function properly.

"The government has betrayed the trust of the people in the city. The government is determined to pile up miseries on the common man," Leader of Opposition V K Malhotra said demanding a special discussion on the issue of price rise.

Speaker Yoganand Shastri, however, rejected the request saying a special discussion on price rise would take place in the House on March 30.

Later, Malhotra said the party did not want to disrupt the proceedings as it wanted to expose the government by participating in the debate on the budget proposals.

Senior BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi, while initiating the discussion on the budget, termed it as "lacklustre" and "anti-people".

Slamming the government for withdrawing the subsidy on cooking gas and increasing VAT on a range of items, Mukhi said diesel will be costlier by Rs 3.50 as compared to Haryana after increase the VAT on it.

"The government has mismanaged its finances. Despite increasing central allocation in the last couple of years, the
fiscal deficit of the government has increased significantly,"
he said.

The fiscal deficit has been estimated to be around 3,116 crore for 2010-11 as compared to Rs 3,561 in the current year. The city government's fiscal deficit was Rs 2,824 crore in 2008-09.

He also criticised the government for not constituting the planning board saying, it is forum which is responsible for giving final shape to economic policies of the government.

"But this government has not yet constituted the planning board," he said. 

Mukhi also slammed the government for allocating only Rs 11,200 crore for plan expenditure as against non plan expenditure of Rs 14,660 crore.

The BJP leader also accused the government of ignoring the agricultural sector and said it has substantially increased VAT on insecticides and pesticides.

Speaking outside the Assembly, Malhotra accused the government of "being in league with the contractors to loot
the public exchequer by indulging in extravagant expenditure
in the name of the Commonwealth Games."