Sudarsan Maharana
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 5: The Budget Session of the Orissa Assembly starts Friday with the Opposition gearing up to corner the government on several issues, like the chit fund scam and land allotment irregularities being on the top of their aggressive agenda.
The session will be held in two phases through 30 working days and ending April 4. While the first phase would start February 6 and continue till 22 this month, the second phase begins March 11 and ends
April 4.
The annual budget for year 2015-16 would be presented by finance minister Pradip Kumar Amat around the middle of the first phase, February 16 and the Appropriation Bill would follow March 31. The minister has said he would introduce a complete budget.
While the size of the state budgets in 2013-14 and 2014-15 was Rs 60,000crore and Rs 80,000 crore, what is clear now is that there would be a substantial hike in the amount. This is also because Central funds for the state is expected to rise this year by about ` Rs 6,000crore.
The recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission gave an impetus to the state’s expectation as it has recommended an eight per cent increase in Central assistance.
However, apart from budget, there are several issues and important bills to be tabled in the house. With Opposition – Congress and BJP – gearing up to target the ruling party with a host of issues, the session is likely to be stormy like the Winter Session in which the house ran for only 14 days due the stalemate between ruling BJD and the Opposition.
The BJD, Congress and BJP held their legislature party meetings Thursday to firm up their strategies for the Budget Session.