Maharashtra Budget session to be held from 1 to 10 March; Budget to be tabled on 8 March

Mumbai: The Budget session of the Maharashtra legislature will be held from 1 and 10 March, parliamentary affairs minister Anil Parab said on Thursday. Opposition BJP alleged that the government was trying to curtail the session on the pretext of coronavirus situation, but Parab claimed that it was opposition parties that wanted a one-day session. The session will start on 1 March with the Governor’s address to the two houses while the Budget will be tabled on 8 March, the minister told reporters after a meeting of the legislature’s Business Advisory Committee (BAC) here. “The state government will also table supplementary demands on the first day. The house will hold a discussion on governor’s speech on 2 March while the next two days are reserved for discussion on supplementary demands,” Parab said. The legislature will discuss proposals of opposition parties on 5 March and some bills will also be tabled, he said. There will be no sittings on 6 and 7 March due to weekend. Parab, a minister from the Shiv Sena, claimed that the opposition suggested a one-day session due to the COVID-19 situation, “but we decided to have a ten-day session.” On Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis’ claim that he walked out of the BAC meeting in protest, Parab said the meeting was already over by then. “After the meeting was over, ruling parties’ leaders were having informal chat with opposition leaders. He announced a walk-out on some pretext then. “The meeting was already over, so the walk-out was meaningless. Anyone can check the minutes of the meeting,” the minister added. Earlier, Fadnavis alleged after the meeting that the Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government was using the pretext of the rising number of COVID-19 cases to curtail the session. “The BJP condemns such a move, hence we walked out of the meeting,” he said, alleging that the government did not want to be questioned on issues such as “rampant corruption”. Fadnavis also pointed out that the election of the new Speaker was not on the agenda of the meeting. The post fell vacant with the resignation of Nana Patole who has taken over as chief of the state unit of the Congress.