Jammu, Feb 27: As the nearly month-long Jammu and Kashmir budget session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly is scheduled to begin from March 3, Leader of the Opposition (LoP), Sunil Sharma on Thursday said that they will not allow any anti-national or unconstitutional bill to be tabled in the House.
“Our stand is clear in the upcoming assembly session. We will not allow any unconstitutional and anti-national bill to be introduced in the budget session,” Sunil Sharma told reporters before attending the All Party Meeting called by the Speaker J&K Assembly, Abdul Rahim Rather here at the Civil Secretariat.
The budget session will be held in two phases from March 3 to 25 and April 7 to 11.
Sunil Kumar Sharma and Surjit Singh Salathia from BJP, Ali Mohammad Sagar and Mubarak Gul from the ruling National Conference, CPI (M) MLA Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami, Congress MLA Ghulam Ahmed Mir, People’s Conference’s Sajjad Gani Lone, PDP’s Wahidul Rehman Parra and Independent MLA Muzaffar Khan attended the meeting.
“We have also objected to the way some MLAs have brought the private member bills into the public domain before bringing them to the notice of the Speaker,” said the LoP.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir said that all party meetings strengthen mutual relations, leading to coordination among the political parties.
CPI (M) MLA Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami, said, “Opposition parties were invited to attend the meeting and as far as the concerns of the common people who have elected their representatives, have hopes that their issues will be raised and addressed by the government in an upcoming Assembly session.”
The first session of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was held in November last year in Srinagar while the second assembly and first budget session of the first assembly of the Union Territory will begin on March 3 in Jammu.
The last budget of Rs 80,313 crore for the financial year 2018-19 in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was presented by the then Finance Minister Dr. Haseeb Drabu on January 11, 2018.
In June 2018, the PDP-BJP coalition government led by Mehbooba Mufti collapsed after the BJP withdrew support from the alliance, and the assembly was dissolved in November 2018.
The then State Administrative Council (SAC) headed by the then Governor Satya Pal Malik adopted a budget of Rs 88,911 crore for 2019-2020 on December 15, 2018.
Subsequently, the budgets of the Union Territory including 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 were presented and passed by the Parliament in the absence of the Legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir.
The budget of Rs 1,18,728 crore of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for the current financial year 2024-25 was presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23, 2024.
The budget of Jammu and Kashmir for 2023-24 was Rs 1,18,500 crore. (Agencies)
