The budget session of the Telangana Legislature will get underway from Monday. Senior MLA T. Harish Rao, who is inducted into the State Cabinet as Finance Minister on Sunday, shall present his maiden budget in the Legislative Council while Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will present the annual financial statement in the Assembly.
The session will commence with the presentation of the budget straight away at 11.30 a.m. after which the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee would be held to decide about the duration and agenda of the session. The session follows the ₹1.82 lakh crore vote-on-account budget introduced by the Chief Minister on February 22 this year which was followed by taking approval for the expenditure for the first six months.
The vote-on-account budget was introduced in view of the vote-on-account budget introduced by the Central Government in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections. The Chief Minister who introduced the budget said the government would introduce a full budget after taking into consideration the allocations made by the Centre to the State and calculating the receivables through different sources.
Governor’s Address
Though it would be a full-fledged budget, the customary address of the Governor to both Houses of the legislature, the Assembly and the Council, is unlikely as the previous Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan had already addressed the joint session of the legislature during the vote-on-account budget. The session, according to sources, is expected to be a brief one as the Government had already finalised the allocations to most of the departments during the vote-on-account budget when it presented a full-fledged budget, although taking permission for the expenditure for the first six months.
According to tentative schedule, the House would be adjourned after the presentation of the budget and the next day would be a holiday on account of Moharrum. The BAC would take a call on whether or not to hold the session on September 11 as September 12 would be another holiday on account of the Ganesh Nimajjan. The House would meet on Friday for the general discussion of budget for two days that would conclude by the reply from the Chief Minister or Finance Minister.
Brief session
This would be followed by discussion on the demands for grants, tentatively for three days, after which the Appropriation Bill for the entire year would be introduced and passed. The House would also take up discussion on the Municipal Administration Ordinance which was issued following incorporating the amendments sought by the out-going Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and pass it the same day. According to sources, Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy are expected to leave for South Africa on September 21 to participate in the Commonwealth conference of presiding officers being held there.