TN Assembly’s Budget Session Now up to September 21

Chennai:  The budget session of the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly which is to commence from August 13 will be extended up to September 21.

Assembly Speaker, M. Appavu said that the decision to this effect was taken at the Business advisory meeting of the assembly.

Speaker while speaking to reporters on Tuesday said that the revised budget to be presented by the state finance minister P.T.R. Palanivel Thiagarajan would be the first e-budget in the history of the state. He said that Desktop computers have been installed at the tables of all MLAs to have a view of the details of the budget.

The legislators have also been provided with Tablets to take note of the budget, Speaker said.

The first exclusive Agriculture budget of the state would be presented on August 14 by the state Agriculture minister, M.R.K. Panneerselvam. The Assembly Speaker said that there would be continuous discussion in the house on the state finance budget and the agriculture budget for four days in a row.

After the discussions on the budget in the house, the finance minister and the agriculture minister would respond to the questions of the members, Speaker said.

The Speaker also said that from August 23 the demands for grants to various departments would be taken up and it will be carried on till the concluding day of the budget on September 21.

The budget session of the assembly is likely to be stormy over the vigilance raids at the residences and office premises of two former AIADMK ministers, M.R. Vijayabaskar and S.P. Velumani as the AIADMK has already announced statewide protests against the DMK government’s victimization of former ministers with vendetta.

The white paper presented by the Finance minister P.T.R. Thiagarajan on Monday in which he had attacked the AIADMK, has not gone down well with the party. The state finance minister had said that the previous AIADMK government had taken the state to a debt trap and that the revenue deficit is astronomical for a state like Tamil Nadu. The minister is likely to make such statements in the legislative assembly creating more provocation from the opposition benches.

(IANS)