Chandigarh, Feb 21 (IANS) Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's government will present its Budget for financial year 2023-24 on March 10 as the Budget session of the 16th Punjab Assembly will be held from March 3 to March 24, it was announced on Tuesday.
This was decided at a Cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister here.
A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said the Cabinet authorised the Governor to convene the session, as per Article 174 of the Constitution.
As per the schedule, the budget session will commence on March 3 at 10 a.m. with Governor's address followed by obituary references at 2 p.m.
The motion of thanks and discussion on Governor's Address will take place on March 6, while the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General for year 2021-22, presentation of supplementary grants for 2022-23 and Appropriation Bill on supplementary demands for grants for 2022-23 will be held on March 7, followed by legislative business.
Non-official business will be held on March 9 and Budget estimates for year 2023-24 will be presented before the House on March 10, followed by general discussion on the budget.
The general discussion on the Budget estimates for year 2023-24 will resume at 10 a.m. on March 11 till its conclusion and voting.
Non-official business will be conducted at 10 am on March 22, followed by the legislative business on March 24 after which the House will be adjourned sine-die.
The Cabinet also gave ex-post-facto approval to the officers committee constituted by the Finance Department to formulate the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the implementation of the old pension scheme in Punjab.
With a view to provide houses at affordable prices to the lower income group in the state, the Cabinet also gave green signal to notify the Affordable Colony Policy, 2023.
The Cabinet also gave nod to convert 101 temporary posts of District and Sessions Judge or Additional District and Sessions Judges into permanent posts to strengthen the judicial system.
Also in attendance were Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. On December 13, 2001, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists had attacked the Parliament complex, in which nine persons including police and security personnel were killed.
A 48-year-old man, absconding for the past 10 years in a case of rash driving and endangering people's life, has been nabbed by Delhi Police in South Delhi's Saket area, an official said on Tuesday. The accused has been identified as Shyam Kumar Awasthi, a resident of village Mahgaura near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.
A senior police official said that they received a complaint in this respect from a 62-year-old woman that an unknown person sent her friend request. Later, the person shared one international WhatsApp number for chatting. After few days, the same person offered her valuable gifts like an Iphone, gold plated wrist watch etc.
Four of the accused in the case -- Faizal Abdul, Vasif Chaudhary, Sagar Pal and Aniket Sindhe-- were arrested on Monday on the information provided by Mubarak Badia and Chandan, who were arrested for possessing drugs worth Rs 3.97 crore from Surat in November.
In a letter, he apprised the Governor that post of Senior Superintendent of Police in Chandigarh has traditionally been occupied by a Punjab-cadre IPS oficer, while an IAS officer of Haryana cadre had been appointed as the Deputy Commissioner.
The accused is Sunny Dilip Lal Sharma alias Manav Govind. While he had secured an identity in the name of Manav Govind to smuggle gold this time, it was revealed that he had been using six different identities. The DRI team recovered 862 grams of gold worth Rs 46 lakh from him. He was later handed over to the Gomti Nagar police.
