Lucknow, Feb 17 (UNI) The budget session of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly will commence from Thursday and is expected to be a stormy one with the united opposition set to corner the government on issues like farmers' agitation, the corona pandemic, law and order besides corruption.



Tomorrow on the opening day, Governor Anandiben Patel will address the joint session of the legislature. State Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna will lay the budget proposal for the next fiscal on February 22.



This will be the fifth and last budget of the present Yogi Adityanath government as the state goes for Assembly polls in early 2022. The budget is expected to be pro-people with the BJP announcing some new popular scheme to woo the people.



For the first time, UP will witness a paperless budget and proceedings of the state legislature.



The budget session is expected to continue till March 10.



The opposition, on other hand, has chalked out an elaborate strategy to counter the failures of the government.



Principal opposition Samajwadi Party members will reach the Assembly on bicycles on the opening day before holding a meeting of the legislature party.



Leader of the opposition Ram Govind Choudhury said here on Wednesday that the opposition members will not let the government sit on their failures and make the people suffer.



"The farmers agitation along with law and order problem, covid pandemic, corruption in the government departments and anti-people acts of the government will be the thrust area of the opposition," Mr Choudhury said .



BSP leader Lalji Verma and Congress legislature party leader Aradhana Mishra too have supported the views of the leader of the opposition.



However, state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna, who is also the state's finance minister, said that the government was ready to reply to each and every question of the opposition", adding that the house decorum should be maintained at all cost and a healthy debate is expected from the opposition bench,".



Meanwhile, Speaker H N Dikshit said the MLAs will be allowed to participate in the proceedings of the house only after undergoing the corona test. He said the process of testing the MLAs for corona is already going on and shall completed on Wednesday.



He said all the security personnel and assembly employees deployed on duty during the budget session will also have to undergo corona test. Like the previous session in September last year, the media persons will have to cover the proceedings from the the nearby Tilak Hall and not from the press gallery. TV sets have been installed there for the live telecast of the budget session.



Assembly speaker HN Dikshit has approved the tentative agenda for the budget session of the state Assembly till March 10.



As per the agenda, the session will begin with the joint address to the both the house of the state Legislature by the state Governor Anandiben Patel on February 18. On February 19, a general debate on the motion of thanks to the Governors address will take place.



On Monday, Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna will table the budget for 2021-22. The general debate on the motion of thanks would continue for the next three days i.e. February 23, 24 and 25. This will be followed by a break of three days after which the debate on the motion of thanks would resume on March 1 and continue till March 5. On March 6, when the house will resume the sitting discussion of budgetary grants of different departments will be taken up on March 8 and March 9 and the budget is likely to be adopted by the house on March 10.





Besides focussing on infra projects and creating more job avenues, this year’s budget is likely to give a boost to people’s welfare programmes of the Yogi government. Some special announcements for farmers and youths

are expected to be announced, keeping in view the ongoing farmers’ agitation against the Centre's new farm laws.





With UP for the first time going for a paperless budget, the state government has sanctioned Rs 50,000 each to MLAs and MLCs for purchasing ipads and tablets. The budget size for the current fiscal 2020-21 is Rs 5.12 lakh crore, and the next budget is likely to over Rs 5.50 lakh crore,





During the budget, six bills will be tabled in the house for replacing the ordinance into Legislation. The ordinance that were promulgated when the house was not in session are the UP pension regularisation ordinance 2020, UP cinema (Regulation) (Amendment) ordinance 2020, UP prohibition of religious conversion ordinance 2020, UP Revenue Code (Amendment) ordinance 2020, UP cane purchase (Amendment) ordinance 2020, State Ayush University, Uttar Pradesh Regulation of Urban Premises Tenancy Ordinance, 2021.

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