Budget paper chase

Budget documents are considered to be in the public domain once they are tabled in Parliament. But for the government, this public domain seemed to exclude the hundreds of newspaper organisations that need to analyse this complex exercise and, hopefully, make it more accessible for the general public. As journalists discovered, there were a limited number of Budget documents in Parliament, and they were told that the bulk distribution was to be from the Press Information Bureau (PIB) office. But the PIB office soon ran short, sending scores of mediamen into a tizzy. The authorisation slips for these documents that were issued a few days ago were also of no use simply because copies were not available. Some backdoor cost-cutting by the government?