the goan I network
PANAJI
It’s official. Ailing and his working severely hampered due to his medical condition, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will indeed present the State’s budget for 2019-20 on January 30, a day after Governor Mridula Sinha delivers her address on the opening day of the three-day session slated to begin on January 29.
The Business Advisory Committee which met on Monday evening at the Goa legislative assembly complex under the chairmanship of Speaker Dr Pramod Sawant, finalised the business and the order in which it will be taken up during the three working days of the session on January 29, 30 and 31.
The BAC meeting held in the conference room attached to the Speaker’s chamber had full quorum on Monday evening. Besides Dr Sawant, Parrikar who is Leader of the House, Opposition Leader Chandrakant Kavlekar, Ministers Sudin Dhavalikar and Vijai Sardesai, Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo and NCP MLA Churchill Alemao, were all present. On day one after the House convenes, Governor Mridula Sinha will deliver her address to the House, the BAC decided. It is a convention across legislatures in India, that the first session of a calendar year begins with the Governor’s address.
Parrikar, who also holds the finance portfolio, will present the annual budget on January 30, the BAC decided. With polling slated to be held within a few months, both for the two Lok Sabha seats and the by-polls for Mandrem and Shiroda, the budget is expected to be a populist one, with financial packages articulated for various sections of the Goan populace, especially those affected by the shutdown in the mining sector.
It was however not clear whether the budget presentation will follow the traditional protocol of a budget speech being read out in the House or like last year, when Parrikar fell ill and was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer he merely placed the budget
