Amid concerns arising out of the ongoing military conflict with Pakistan, the Maharashtra Government on Thursday curtailed the ongoing Budget session of the State legislature, by two days.
Prefacing his announcement about the curtailment of the budget session of the Maharashtra Legislature, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis alluded to the surgical strike carried out by Indian Air Force (IAF) on terror camps in Pakistan and said in the State Assembly: “In view of the IAF’s airstrike and yesterday’s developments, there is tension on the Pakistani border.. While the Army is capable enough to look after the country’s security needs, it is but necessary that we take care of internal security in the country. In cities like Mumbai, we have to maintain extra vigil security matters”.
“There is no situation or need for us to panic. It is but essential that we take necessary precautions in view of the situation in the country. This session would have gone on for next two to three days. In view of the involvement of property like Vidhan Bhavan, we deploy as many 6,000 police personnel during the legislature sessions,” Fadnavis said.
“After getting feedback from the top police officials that they need more force to take care of security issues, I deliberated the matter with leaders of various political parties yesterday. Top police officials briefed us about the situation. I had one more meeting with the leaders of the Opposition in the morning today. At that meeting, we unanimously decided to complete all the pending business today and curtail the session by two days so as to make available more police personnel to take care of the security needs in the city,” the Chief Minister said.
Fadnavis thanked leaders of the Opposition and leaders of various political parties in both the Houses for their co-operation in curtailing the budget sessions by two days.
In a tweet put out later in the afternoon, Fadnavis said: “In view of the developments in country and to keep availability of our forces free from other responsibilities, it is unanimously decided to end #MaharashtraBudget session. No reason to get panic, this decision is only to make available forces with police dept:CM @Dev_Fadnavis”.
The budget session, which commenced on Monday, was earlier scheduled to end on Saturday.
Maharashtra’s Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Wednesday presented an interim budget for 2019-20 which showed an estimated revenue deficit of Rs 19,784 crore and made a provision of special fund for farm loan waiver.
The vote-on-account budget, which has fiscal provisions for four months of the next financial year —from April to July 2019, was passed by both the Houses of State Legislature on Thursday, without any debate.