Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 9: Legislative Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta, Council Chairman Haji Inayat Ali and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Abdul Rehman Veeri will tomorrow take a final call on three proposals mooted by the Speaker for upcoming budget session of the Legislature, which is due to start on May 25.
As per first proposal, there will be only single sitting throughout the session, which will continue till July 4. The second proposal, which called for double sittings during debate on Demand of Grants for various departments, would end the session on June 21 while third proposal stated that in view of the holy month of Ramazan, there should be recess in the budget session from June 23 to July 14 to end the session on July 19.
The proposal was aimed at ensuring that there was six months gap in the upcoming budget session and next year’s budget session, which is proposed to be held in January so that no second session has to be held this year-either in Srinagar or in Jammu.
When approached for comments, Speaker Kavinder Gupta told the Excelsior that a final call on duration of the budget will be taken tomorrow after his meeting with the Council Chairman and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister. Whether to go for session with recess or not will also be decided in tomorrow’s meeting, he said.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s opinion will also be taken before deciding on the budget session duration.
Gupta said as per all three proposals, the budget session will start on May 25 with Governor NN Vohra’s Address to the joint session of Legislature while Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu will present general budget for financial year of 2016-17 on May 30. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will reply to debate on the Governor’s Address on May 28, which will be Ms Mufti’s first major address in the Assembly as she would be facing maiden session of the Legislature as the Chief Minister.
Drabu will reply to debate on the budget on June 2.
Gupta said if the proposal of single sittings throughout the session matured, the Demands of Grants of all Departments will be debated and replies given by the Minister from June 3 to 22 followed by private member’s Resolutions on June 24 and 28, private member’s bills on June 27 and 29 and Government business on June 25 and July 4. The session will conclude on July 4.
However, if the Demands of Grants of all Departments were held in double sittings, the session will conclude around June 21.
The third proposal, which also mentioned single sittings for the Demands of Grants will get the budget passed with Appropriation bill on June 23 and adjourn for recess till July 14 when it will meet again and continue till July 19.
Sources said majority of the Ministers and legislators were against holding double sittings for Demands of Grants on the ground that the holy month of Ramazan would start around first week of June and, therefore, the single sitting only was advisable throughout the session.
Moreover, according to sources, if the budget session concludes on June 21 or July 4, as per the first two proposals, the Government will have to hold second session of the Legislature this year in November-December as it was mandatory for the Assembly to meet at least once in six months.
However, if the session concludes on July 19, as per the third proposal, the Government would get time up to January 18, 2017 to hold next session. By then, the Government already proposed to hold budget session for next financial year of 2017-18 in Jammu.
This year also, the Government had finalized budget session from January 18. All formalities for the session had been completed but with sudden demise of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on January 7 followed by imposition of Governor’s Rule in the State next day, the budget session was cancelled.
With PDP-BJP delaying formation of the Government till April 4, there was no time left for budget session in Jammu due to shifting of the Civil Secretariat on April 19 and it was decided to hold the session in Srinagar from May 25.
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