AAP conducts public meetings for budget preparation

The Aam Aadmi Party government today conducted public meetings in six constituencies in the second phase of its participatory budgeting exercise in Delhi.
People's Budget (Janata ka Budget) initiative was launched on April 19 by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with much fanfare from Patparganj constituency to seek views of voters on the budget.
Public meetings were held today at various locations of Dwarka, Chattarpur, Karawal Nagar, Okhala, Bawana and Patparganj.
According to the officials, about 200-300 people turned up at each public meeting and most of them raised local civic and security issues. Meetings were chaired by sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) level officers and MLAs of the constituency along with District Magistrate were inspecting the budget meeting.

Senior officials of respective department of Delhi government were present at the meetings to listen to public grievances.
"Public budget is democracy in true sense as voters have never felt so empowered before. Sewer, road repair, maintenance of park and CCTV cameras were the main issues raised by the voters.
"Going to public for budget has also helped government to understand local needs which cannot be addressed from secretariat. Locals informed officials that a pipe should be fixed which can solve water problem. They also spoke about how some areas are in extremely bad shape due to tussle between government agencies," said Adarsh Shastri, MLA from Dwarka area.

The exerciuse with continue tomorrow and subsequent meetings will be held on weekends.