Jharkhand Assembly session likely to be stormy, budget to be

The month-long budget session of the Jharkhand Assembly beginning from February 28 is expected to be stormy with the opposition BJP likely to raise the state governments reported move to rollback the 'Mukhya Mantri Krishi Ashirwad Yozana' (MMKAY).

The BJP will also raise the issue of reports that another welfare scheme might be withdrawn by the JMM- Congress-RJD coalition government led by Hemant Soren, a BJP leader said.

A spurt in Naxalism in state will also be highlighted during the session, he said.

The saffron party has 25 MLAs in the 81-member House.

TheKAY was launched by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on August 10 last year.

TheKAY, a flagship scheme of the previous Raghubar Das government, helped farmers get a maximum of Rs 25,000 - Rs 5,000 per acre with the upper limit being five acres - per annum in addition to Centre's Rs 6,000 per annum under the kisan yojana.

On February 9, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh had expressed concern over the move while the saffron party's state unit spokesman Pratul Shahdeo had said that his party would protest if the farmer-friendly scheme was scrapped.

"During the budget session, our MLAs will also raise reports of abolishing the land registration fee of Re 1 for women purchasing land," BJPs spokesman Pratul Shahdeo told PTI.

The BJP's decision to raise the issues comes after former chief minister Babulal Marandi's announcement on Tuesday that he will merge the JVM(P), which he had floated 14 years ago after quitting the saffron party, with the BJP.

A formal merger ceremony will take place on February 17 at Jagannathpur Maidan, in the presence of BJPs former president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, present BJP president J P Nadda and BJP vice-president Om Prakash Mathur.

The JVM-P has three MLAs, but two of them--Bandhu Tirkey and Pradip Yadav- have rebelled and Tuesday's meeting decided to expel them from the party.

Marandi will be the lone legislator of the party after doors were shown to the two others.

Meanwhile, the JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government in Jharkhand will present the state budget for the fiscal 2020-21 in the House on March 3.

This will be the first full budget to be presented by the coalition government after it assumed power in the state on December 29 last year, ousting the BJP-led regime.

During the budget session, the House will be functional for 18 days, an official release said.

The decision in this regard was taken at a Cabinet meeting, chaired by the chief minister, here on Tuesday.

A supplementary budget of Rs 4,210 crore for the current fiscal was passed in the Assembly in January.