Telangana Budget Session To Begin Today Without Governor's Address, T Harish Rao To Present

The opposition BJP and Congress have both attacked the TRS government for not scheduling the customary Governor's address.

Photo: KCR (PTI) | T Karish Rao (Twitter/@TelanganaHealth)

New Delhi: Budget session of the Telangana Legislature is set to begin on Monday without the Governor's address.

The session comes at a time when Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao is trying to bring various parties together against the alleged anti-people policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

State Finance Minister T. Harish Rao will present the budget for 2022-23 today. 

Budget Session To Commence Without Governor's Address

Notably, differences between the Telangana Governor and the TRS-led state government came to the fore ahead of the session with Tamilisai Soundararajan expressing disappointment over the customary Governor's address to the Budget session of the legislature not being scheduled this year.

"The House is meeting after five months. Under normal circumstances, when the House is convened after such a long interval, it is a new session, but the government has chosen to continue the earlier session," Soundararajan said in a statement, as quoted by news agency IANS.

"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 performance of the Government," she stated, as reported by news agency PTI.

The opposition BJP and Congress have both attacked the TRS government for not scheduling the customary Governor's address.

Taking exception to comments by BJP leaders, state Legislative Affairs Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy defended the move contending that the Governor's address is not taking place because the Budget Session is a continuation of the previous session which has not been prorogued.

Citing constitutional provisions, he said that the Governor is supposed to address the Legislature when a new session takes place in a calendar year.

There have been instances in the past when the Governor's address did not feature in the session, he had said, as reported by PTI. 

 The Telangana state cabinet met on Sunday and approved the state budget for 2022-23.

The Cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, was held at his official residence Pragati Bhavan. It approved the budget which will be presented in the Assembly by Finance Minister Harish Rao.

(With Agency Inputs)