JAMMU, Mar 2: First budget session of the Legislative Assembly in past seven years will start tomorrow with Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s address at 10 AM while the House will pay tribute to five eminent persons who passed away during last about four months including former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather will announce names of the Chairpersons.
Sinha will address the Assembly members at 10 AM in Central Hall of Legislature. While this is the first budget session of Omar Govt, this will be second address of the Lieutenant Governor to the Legislature. He addressed the Assembly in Srinagar on November 4, 2024 during brief first session of Omar Government.
Though all political parties including main opposition-BJP and PDP during All Party Meeting convened by the Speaker assured him of smooth proceedings, there were indications that the PDP, People’s Conference and Awami Ittehad Party (AIP), together accounting for five MLAs, could rake up controversial issues prompting the BJP to counter the charges.
“This could lead to pandemonium,” the insiders in these parties said. The BJP has already warned that it will not tolerate any kind of anti-national agenda in the House.
The Central Hall of Legislature has been decked up for the LG’s address which is being held after seven years in Jammu. However, this time, there will be only 88 MLAs to hear the Address as 36-member Legislative Council, which was in place in 2018 when last session of the Legislature was held, has ceased to exist. The 90-member Assembly has two vacancies.
As per the List of Business released by the Assembly Secretariat for tomorrow, the Lieutenant Governor will address the House at Central Hall of Legislature at 10 AM.
The MLAs will meet half an hour after the Lieutenant Governor’s address in the Assembly complex. The Speaker will lay a copy of the LG’s address on table of the House. He will also announce names of the Panel of Chairpersons.
The obituary reference will be taken up for five persons by the Assembly. They include Dr Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister, Syed Ghulam Hussain Geelani, former Minister, Shamsher Singh Manhas, ex Rajya Sabha member, Ghulam Hassan Parrey and Choudhary Piara Singh, former MLAs.
The Assembly will debate the LG’s address on March 4, 5 and 6. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will reply to the debate on March 6. Omar, who also holds charge of the Finance Department, will present his maiden budget in the House on March 7.
This will be after seven years that budget of Jammu and Kashmir will be presented in the Assembly. Last budget of J&K was presented on January 11, 2018 in the Legislature by then Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu when Mehbooba Mufti headed the PDP-BJP coalition Government in erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir.
Omar had held the charge of Home and General Administrative Department among others during his previous stint as the Chief Minister in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir from 2009 to 2014.
The previous five budgets were presented and passed by the Parliament in the absence of the Legislative Assembly in J&K, while the then Governor Satya Pal Malik led the State Administrative Council to pass the budget for 2019-2020 following the fall of the PDP-BJP Government in June 2018.
The Chief Minister has completed the budgetary exercise with various stakeholders from industry, MLAs, DDC chairpersons, Government departments among others and now the Finance Department is giving final touches to the budget.
Outgoing financial year 2024-25 budget was presented in the Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23, 2024 worth Rs 1,18,728 crore. However, an interim budget of the UT (Vote-on-Account) was taken on February 5, 2024 in the Parliament in view of Lok Sabha elections.
Budget for 2023-24 of Jammu and Kashmir was also to the tune of Rs 1,18,500 crore.
For 2025-26, the Union Finance Ministry has given around Rs 41,000 crore worth Central assistance to Jammu and Kashmir which is Rs 1277 crore less than current financial year of 2024-25.
