Budget to be tabled in House on January 31

Kolkata: The state Budget will be tabled in the Assembly on January 31 instead of February 1. This was decided on Saturday.

Parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee announced of the preponement of the state Budget by a day after the business advisory committee (BA) meeting in the Assembly on Saturday.

The move may trigger controversy as no Opposition party leader was present there.

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi will deliver his address in the House on January 30 to mark the commencement of the Budget Session.

After the state Budget would be tabled on January 31, next two days have been scheduled for a discussion in the House on the governor’s address. It will continue for some time on February 5 also. Earlier it was decided on January 25 that the state budget would be held on February 1.

According to sources, Mr Chatterjee called all the leaders of the opposition parties on Saturday to attend the BA committee meeting to take a decision on scheduling the state Budget on January 31.

“Although all were called, none of them turned up. CPI(M) MLA Sujan Chakraborty informed that he would not be able to come because he was away from his constituency,” he said.

Mr Chatterjee added, “I am not however aware of the reason of others’ absence. Only they can explain why they did not attend the BA committee meeting.” Asked on the opposition parties’ criticism of holding state Budget ahead of the union budget Mr Chatterjee, who is also the education minister, argued that this would not be the first time the state budget would be placed before the union budget.

According to him, it happened in the past also. Recently leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan alleged that there was no point to attend the all party meeting in the assembly as the Opposition parties’ demands were not accepted. Rejecting his claim Mr Chatterjee reasoned that levelling only version allegations would not help.