The Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Jagdish Mukhi, on Tuesday termed the Delhi Budget presented by Finance Minister A. K. Walia on Monday as a document of announcements alone and not a budget in the real sense. Initiating a discussion in the House on the Budget, he charged that the interests of the farmers and the agricultural sector had been completely ignored. Prof. Mukhi said but for the Planning Commission that allocated an additional Rs.1,000 crore for Delhi, the Government had been sitting easy on the Plan size of Rs.9,000 crore for 2008-09 which in real terms would have meant a reduction of 20 per cent in funds for development activities due to inflation and the allocation for the Commonwealth Games. Stating that Dr. Walia had always compared his Budget to those of the BJP Government earlier, Prof. Mukhi said while the rate of growth in the Plan expenditure in the 9th Plan from 1997 to 2002 was 250 per cent, it had dropped drastically to 50 per cent in the 10th Plan and to 91 per cent in the 11th Plan. He questioned how Delhi would keep pace with development when the Plan size had got reduced. Delhi being a city-state, Prof. Mukhi said, ideally the non-Plan expenditure here should remain limited. But while during BJP rule it used to be around 45 per cent of the total Budget, in Congress rule it had increased to 55 per cent to 70 per cent. The BJP leader also charged that in actual terms, for the coming fiscal less money had been earmarked for agriculture and allied services, urban development, small irrigation, and vigilance. Likewise, lesser allocations had been made for technical education, health services, and nutrition, he said. With an outstanding debt of Rs.25,339 crore till January 2008, Prof. Mukhi said every person in Delhi was indebted to the extent of nearly Rs.20,000 crore. But, he said, little had been done to check the debt as the interest on it had shot up from Rs.3005 crore in 2007-08 as against the tax revenue of Rs.12,125 crore. So 25 per cent of the revenue was going into servicing debt. The BJP leader said the Budget had lost its meaning as people were suffering due to the burden of mounting prices of all essential commodities. Also, he charged that 70 per cent of the below poverty line ration card holders were not getting the subsidised pulses promised to them by the Government. He said the Delhi Government had also not fulfilled its promises of making low-cost houses for the poor, forming a Social Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation, a Women Development Board and Physical Disabled Welfare Corporation. Similarly, he said, plans for Monorail, High Speed Trains, six corridors of BRT, Multi-Modal Integrated Transport Policy, multi-storey parking, electric trolley buses and a common time-table for Delhi Metro and buses had remained on paper only. Prof. Mukhi said that due to the Government's policies the distributive character of Delhi had got disturbed and many traders had shifted out. He also raised the issue of the Rs.2,539-crore waiver for power discoms and said 80 per cent or over Rs.2,000 crore of this amount was to go to the Delhi Government. But the discoms managed to collect only Rs.410 crore and got the remainder waived causing a massive loss to the Exchequer.