House session from Jan 15

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 29

The Budget session of the Jammu and Kashmir legislature will begin on January 15, government sources have said.

This is being done to enable smooth functioning of the administration and deal with the bulk of pending legislative business, the sources told The Tribune.

A lot of work was pending because of paucity of time in the previous two sessions, one each in Jammu and Srinagar, did not allow the two Houses of legislature to complete the work.

As Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu is keen to start his interaction with stakeholders and the business community in Kashmir and Jammu region from next month, he wants to incorporate many new schemes in the forthcoming Budget.

He will highlight achievements of previous Budget proposals. The Planning Department has started working on plan requirements of different departments.

Drabu will present the state’s annual Budget for 2016-17 on January 20. The Budget is likely to focus on connectivity, welfare schemes, power generation and long-term infrastructural needs.

It will throw light on how the government wants to build infrastructure for institutions like AIIMS, IIM and IITs in the state and how it would give a push to industrial growth.

The idea is to address the problem of unemployment and give extra thrust to tourism, handicrafts and information technology, the sources said.

This time will be a bigger test for the PDP-BJP government compared to this year’s Budget, which was presented in a hurry immediately after government formation on March 1.

Much of the homework that was to be done could not be completed in time and Budget preparations were affected because of an unending shower of controversies that dogged real issues.

The PDP-BJP government is hoping for smooth sailing this time, mostly because of major support provided by the Prime Minister’s package, particularly in infrastructure, connectivity, education, flood relief and rehabilitation and power generation sectors.