It’s now official. The budget session of the Maharashtra Legislature will be held in Mumbai and not in the state’s second capital Nagpur as declared earlier due to the pandemic situation. The session will begin on March 3 and conclude on March 25. The duration of the session and other details were finalized at the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meetings of the state assembly and council held on Tuesday at the Vidhan Bhavan. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who holds the finance and planning departments, will present the annual budget for 2022-23 on March 11.
Pawar will present the Economic Survey for 2021-22 on March 10.
Maharashtra Legislative Affair Minister Anil Parab after BAC meetings announced the time schedule for the three-week budget session beginning March 3 in Mumbai. He said pending bills along with new bills will be tabled during the budget session, adding that discussion on the state’s annual budget will be held for five days.
The budget session was to start from February 28 at Nagpur as announced when the winter session of the state legislature was concluded on December 28 in Mumbai. However, at the BAC meetings, it was finally decided that the budget session will take place in Mumbai from March 3 and not in Nagpur as the MLA hostel is currently converted into COVID 19 quarantine centre. In addition, there are constraints on health infrastructure and the mobilization of manpower at Nagpur in view of the prevailing third wave of COVID 19.
In view of the pandemic, the winter session as per the Nagpur Pact could not be held at Nagpur for the last two years-2020 and 2021.
