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.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the cast of the national emblem atop the new Parliament building, opposition parties and activists on Tuesday accused the government of distorting the national emblem by replacing the graceful and confident Ashokan lions with those displaying an aggressive posture.
The container, which was loaded from the Jebel Ali port in the UAE, was booked by an importer from Malerkotla in Punjab. The DGP said that as the link of the container has been established with Punjab, the consignment seems to be routed to some other place via Punjab.
In March, the top court had reserved the order on sentence to Mallya, who was found guilty of contempt in 2017 for disobeying court's order for not disclosing full particulars of assets in case between the SBI and Kingfisher Airlines.
Besides Bains, Paramjit Singh Pamma, Jasbir Kaur, Baljinder Kaur and Pardeep Kumara surrendered in the court of Judicial Magistrate Harsimranjit Kaur. Two other accused -- Karamjit Singh Bains and Sukhchain Singh -- are in judicial custody. All seven were declared proclaimed offender on April 12.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea by Punjab BJP leader Jagjit Singh seeking CBI probe into the cold-blooded murder of famous Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala. A bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Abhay Oka said the case should not be given a political colour and Punjab is supposed to take care of it and they are taking care of the matter.
The police have recovered 5.57 kg heroin, 17 kg opium, 25 kg ganja, seven quintals poppy husk, 2.25 lakh intoxicant pills and capsules, etc, after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas.
