The Budget Session of Haryana Assembly commencing from Thursday is expected to be stormy with the opposition gearing up to corner the ruling coalition government of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) on issues related to farmers, traders, unemployment and other common issues.
The budget session is expected to continue till March 3. The proceedings of the House will begin with the address of Governor SN Arya at 11 am. As Finance Minister, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is expected to present his first budget on February 28.
The budget session of the Assembly will be conducted for 13 days with five holidays. February 21 is Maha Shivaratri. The House will not function on second Saturday and February 23 is holiday because of Sunday. Discussion on Governor’s address is expected to begin on February 24 which is likely to last on February 27.
Each session will be of single session but if the Business Advisory Committee of the Legislative Assembly, desires, the sitting could be doubled on any day.
Meanwhile, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led coalition government of BJP-JJP has been busy preparing the budget. To include the legislators’ suggestions in the budget, the chief minister organised three-day long pre-budget consultation meeting which concluded on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters, Speaker Gian Chand Gupta sought the cooperation of opposition in smooth conduct of the Budget session while Kanwar Pal Gujjar, who the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said that the government is ready to discuss and debate all issues to be raised by the opposition.
The Speaker would preside over a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee to approve the agenda of the House on Thursday morning ahead of Budget session.
Gupta said So far, about 500 questions have come to him to be asked by the legislators in the House during the session. Through lucky draw method, the questions of the MLAs are being selected so that no one can say that their questions are not selected. All the MLAs will be given the opportunity to speak, he added.
The opposition Congress will take on the ruling BJP inside the Assembly on issues related like unemployment, stray cattle menace, issues of farmers, traders, rise in crime against women, law and order among others.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda said, “We are prepared to take on the government on all issues.” He said unemployment is the most serious issue in Haryana at this moment. "The government has not yet been able to present a road map in this regard, besides failure in providing relief to people through different welfare schemes would be the main issues that will be raised in the floor of Vidhan Sabha,” Hooda said, adding that government’s failure to draft Common Minimum Programme would be a prominent issue.
Hooda said we will seek answers on the issue of old age pension within the House. Apart from this, the paddy scam that has come to light in Haryana since last session will also be raised. They will also question the government on issues related to government employees’ during the session.
The Opposition leader said when BJP came to power in Haryana in 2014, Haryana had a debt of only Rs 61 thousand crores which has now increased to Rs one lakh 80 thousand crores. He alleged that the government is running the business only by taking loans. All these issues will be raised in the budget session of Haryana Vidhan Sabha, he added.
Former Minister and Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal said, "we will expose the ruling during budget discussion in the Vidhan Sabha if suggestions made by us are not incorporated.”
Senior INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala said that he would raise the issue of farmers, unemployment and issues related to common people.