Bengal budget on Feb 1

The West Bengal state budget for the financial year 2018-19 will be placed in the state assembly on February 1, its Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee said today.
Chatterjee said the budget session of the assembly will start on January 30 and continue till February 8.
West Bengal governor K N Tripathi address the assembly on the opening day as is customary and the budget will be placed on February 1, he said.
Leader of opposition Abdul Mannan questioned the reason behind curtailing the budget session to just 10 days and said the ruling Trinamool Congress is trying to stiffle the opposition voice.

"Never before we have seen such a short budget session. They don't the opposition to raise questions, they don't want proper discussions," Mannan said.
Chatterjee, who is also the secretary general of TMC, countered the allegation by asking the opposition parties to participate in discussions rather than boycotting it.

"They don't know the facts and are making baseless allegations against us. There is always scope for extended budget session later on. They don't participate in all party meetings and discussions in assembly and make allegations against us," he said.
The Congress and the Left Front today boycotted the all party meeting in the assembly accusing TMC of not giving enough importance to the opposition.

"Why would we go to the all party meeting when we are not given enough importance in the house," Mannan said.
Reacting to the charge, Chatterjee said ""They (Congress) need to do something to stay in news and so had boycotted the all party meeting.