Bengal budget session to begin from July 2, COVID protocols to be followed

KOLKATA: The budget session of the West Bengal Assembly will begin from July 2 with Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's address, Speaker Biman Banerjee said on Tuesday.

The budget is likely to be placed in the house the next day of the commencement of the session or the day after, assembly sources said.

The duration of the session is yet to be finalised.

"The budget session of the West Bengal assembly will begin from July 2 with Governor's address. However, it is yet to be decided till when the session will continue," Banerjee said.

The session will be conducted following all COVID-19 protocols.

According to TMC chief whip Nirmal Ghosh, just like the previous vote-on-account was placed by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself in February session due to ill health of state finance minister Amit Mitra, this time too the budget might be presented by either the CM or parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee in case Mitra is unable to do so.

"However, nothing has been decided so far in this regard", he said.

Ghosh said the tenure of the budget session is likely to be decided during the Business Advisory committee meeting on June 28.

This will be the first occasion that Banerjee and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari will face each other on the assembly floor.

Once considered a protg of Mamata Banerjee, Adhikari switched over to the BJP just ahead of the assembly polls and defeated the chief minister from the high-profile Nandigram seat by a slim margin.

BJP with 75 MLAs is the main opposition in the Bengal assembly.

Congress and the Left parties have no representation in the present house.

This will be the first budget of the new Trinamool Congress government, which stormed back to power for the third consecutive time in the April-May elections with a massive mandate.