New Delhi: The 2022-23 budget session of the Telangana government will begin on March 7. State Finance Minister T Harish Rao will present the budget on the first day of the session.
In a bid to conduct the session smoothly, the assembly speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and the Council Pro-tem Chairman Syed Aminul Hasan Jafri held a review meeting on Saturday to take stock of the arrangements.
The Speaker also directed the police department to make adequate security arrangements ahead of the upcoming budget session. He sought the support of the authorities concerned for a peaceful budget session and wanted the government to appoint special nodal officers on behalf of the respective departments to be ready with answers to all the queries that are raised in the Assembly.
Although the pandemic is on the decline, the speaker directed all the members and officials to follow the Covid guidelines strictly. The health department has also been asked to establish a Covid-19 testing centre on the Assembly premises to test those who show any symptoms.
Government Chief Whip Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, DGP M Mahender Reddy, Legislature Secretary V Narasimhacharyulu and other top officials were also present in the meeting.
It is to be noted that the first meeting of the eighth session of legislature concluded on October 8, 2021. However, as the session, which was adjourned, was not prorogued by the Governor, the upcoming Budget session will be considered as the second meeting of the eighth session and would begin without the governor’s address. There would be no joint session of state legislature either.
According to government sources as quoted by The New Indian Express, “If the session is not prorogued, then there is no need for the Governor to address the joint session. It is the discretion of the Speaker to start the session when the House is not prorogued. Several states followed this convention as per the provisions of the Constitution.”
However, the decision to commence the budget session without the customary governor’s address has stoked a controversy with Tamilisai Soundararajan expressing disappointment.
According to a press release, the governor in a statement said, “By not holding the Governor's Address in this Budget Session, the members now stand to lose out on the opportunity to discuss the previous year's performance of the government."
Earlier this week, the opposition BJP and Congress had also attacked the TRS government for not scheduling the Governor's address to the Budget session.