Himachal passes Rs 30,185.78 cr budget; BJP walks out twice

Himachal Pradesh Assembly today passed the state budget for 2015-16 and related Appropriation Bill authorising the government to spend Rs 30,185.78 crore from the consolidated fund even as BJP twice walked out of the House during discussions on demands for health and education.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who also holds the finance portfolio, had on March 18 presented the budget.
Opposition BJP members expressed dissatisfaction over the reply of Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur during the discussion on demands for health and walked out of the House twice. They, however, returned to the House few minutes later.
Again they walked out for the second time not satisfied with the reply of the Chief Minister on discussion on demands for education.

The BJP members said that the reply of the chief minister was not satisfactory and the issues raised by them were not responded to.
The House passed the demands for Police, Public Works, Health and Education while the remaining demands were passed without discussion after Speaker BBL Butail applied guillotine.
The budget left a deficit of Rs 3,285 crore to be covered through borrowings.