Puducherry Cabinet to meet tomorrow to finalise L-G’s address and Budget speech

CM N. Rangasamy will present his first budget on Thursday evening, after the customary address of the Lt Governor and election for the post of Deputy Speaker



Chief Minister N. Rangasamy will chair a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, to finalise the customary address of the Lt Governor and the budget speech.“The Finance clearance for the draft of the budget has come and the Cabinet will meet probably on Wednesday evening to finalise the address of L-G and budget speech,” a government source told The Hindu .

The Chief Minister on Tuesday met Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to formally invite her.

The National Democratic Alliance led by the All India N R Congress had sought approval for presenting a budget outlay of ₹10,100 crore, the source said.“There could be some shortage but the exact amount will be known only after Union Ministry of Home Affairs formally communicates to us. We are expecting an intimation from MHA anytime,” said an official. But the source said, the outlay for the current financial year would be substantially higher than the budget size of ₹9,000 for 2020-21. The administration had been running on the expenditure sanction given by the Parliament for the last five months. In March, Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman had presented a vote on account ₹3,934 crore for April-August.

Mr. Rangasamy will present his first budget on Thursday evening after the customary address of the Lt Governor and election for the post of Deputy Speaker. The Assembly will take a break around 11.30 a.m. and again reconvene post-lunch, the source said. The session is likely to last for around 10 days, the source added. The source added that AINRC would keep the Deputy Speaker’s post and Government whip, while its alliance partner in government, BJP, would keep the post of Parliamentary Secretary to the CM.

Meanwhile, president of the People’s Pulse, P. Devanathan, wrote a letter to the Assembly Secretary to telecast the proceedings live on social media and also put a screen near Bharathi park for the public to watch the proceedings. He also wanted the proceedings to be telecast in the cabins of heads of departments to give timely inputs to Ministers when members raise questions. During every Assembly session, the work gets derailed as officials need to be present physically in the Assembly to provide information to Ministers during the proceedings, he added.