The Sikkim Assembly on Tuesday passed the vote-on-acount for a sum of Rs. 84875.67 lakh to meet the state government’s expenditure for three months between April and June this year.
The vote-on-account was adopted by the 32-member SDF legislature party, barring the rebel MLA P. S. Tamang who was absent from the house, by a voice vote without any discussion after Speaker K. T. N. Gyaltsen put it for voting and passage by the members.
The Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, in his capacity as the Finance Minister, had tabled the vote-on-account for three months on Monday in the house saying that a full fledged budget could not be brought by the State government apparently due to the delay in the allocation of plan size of the state by the Planning Commission.
A regular budget will be presented in due course of time after the receipt of allocation from the Planning Commission next month, Mr. Chamling explained.
The State legislature also passed three amendment bills to bring elected members of Gram and Zila Panchayats under the net of the anti-defection law, empowering the police to take samples of seized drugs during anti-trafficking drive and for setting up cooperative societies in the villages for development of the human resources.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on Sikkim for the financial year 2008-09 was also laid on the table of the house on Tuesday.