NEW DELHI, March 23: Parliament on Wednesday approved the Rs 1.42-lakh-crore budget for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for 2022-23, with Rajya Sabha returning the relevant bills to the Lok Sabha.
The Lok Sabha had passed the bills on March 14.
The upper House returned the bills — The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, 2022, and The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No.2) Bill, 2022.
There was a brief exchange of words between Congress party members and treasury benches on terror-related activities in Jammu and Kashmir before the removal of Article 370 in 2019.
Replying to the nearly four-hour-long discussion on the budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said after the abrogation of the Article 370, “you see justice reaching, democracy reaching, economic development reaching” to the residents of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. (Agencies)