Himachal budget session begins Monday

The 19-day budget session of the Himachal Pradesh assembly will begin Feb 3 with Governor Urmila Singh's address, Speaker B.B. Butail said here Saturday.

The session will have 14 sittings, including two days for private member's business.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who also holds the finance portfolio, will present the budget Feb 7. This will be his 17th budget. It is scheduled to be passed Feb 19.

Butail said that besides passing of motion of thanks on the governor's address and the general budget for 2014-15, supplementary demands for 2013-14 would also be passed.

He told reporters here that earphones would be used in the assembly for the first time by members on an experimental basis.

On re-introducing "zero hour", Butail said he would consult the government.

"Personally, I feel there is no need of zero hour. The MLAs can raise issues as per rules in time fixed for them. For other issues, we can give them time during the main business only," he said.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is, however, preoccupied with the proposed rally of the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Feb 16 at Sujanpur in Hamirpur district.

"We will chalk out our floor strategy at a meeting in Shimla Feb 2. But on the face of it, it is principally wrong to prepone the budget session with an eye on Lok Sabha polls," said BJP's legislature party chief whip Suresh Bhardwaj.

"The state government's annual plan is yet to be approved. The government should have come out with vote-on-account at this moment," he said.