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Budget session begins today, Congress to make it stormy
The
budget session of the Assembly will commence on Tuesday with chief minister
Narendra Modi making his maiden entry into the House and finance minister
Nitin Patel presenting his first budget.
The session will begin with
the inaugural speech by governor Sundar Singh Bhandari followed by a condolence
message for BJP MLA from Mahuva Devdutt Patel, who died recently.
The proceedings of the House
will then be adjourned for rest of the day.
On Wednesday, Mr. Patel will
present the expenditure for the financial year 2001-2002 and then the
general budget for 2002-2003. General discussion on budget will be taken
up on March 1, which will continue for four days.
Discussion on budgetary demands
will be done on March 13 to 22 and nonofficial resolutions, appropriation
Bill and nonofficial Bill will be presented between March 26 and 28.
Apart from Mr. Modi, the
House will have two new members in Congress MLAs Dalsukh Prajapati and
Ishwar Vahiya. Mr. Prajapati emerged victorious from the Sayajiganj in
Vadodara district, while Mr. Vahiya bagged the tribal seat of Mahuva in
the recently concluded by-elections.
According to sources, the
session is expected to be stormy, as the Opposition Congress will leave
no stone unturned to grill the ruling party over a plethora of state-related
issues. Sources added that with Congress grabbing both the Mahuva and
Sayajiganj seat, the possibility of its legislators vehemently demanding
the resignation of the ruling BJP government is not being ruled out.
Also, Congress leader Naresh
Rawal will appear in the new role of "leader of Opposition" while Congress
MLA Siddharth Patel will shoulder the responsibility as the party's chief
whip. Sources added that the victor of Sabarmati Assembly seat Narhari
Amin will enter the Vidhan Sabha after a period of seven years.
It may be recalled that Mr.
Amin defeated his nearest BJP rival Babu Patel to bag the seat, by-elections
for which were held in September last year.
Republished from The Asian Age
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