Ordinance on U’khand budget likely today

NEW DELHI: The uncertainty over salaries of Uttarakhand government employees and public expenses will be over on Wednesday. President Pranab Mukherjee might promulgate an ordinance to approve the state’s annual budget from April 1.

The states appropriation bill had triggered the political crisis that led to the imposition of President’s Rule. Although the Harish Rawat government maintained that the budget had been passed, finance minister Arun Jaitley pointed out that the process remained incomplete before the state came under President’s Rule.

“The cabinet committee on parliamentary affairs met Tuesday morning and decided to prorogue both Houses of Parliament. Later, I met the President to explain to him the rationale behind the decision,” parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu told HT.

The prorogation, or formally ending a parliamentary session, was essential to approve the Uttarakhand budget because no ordinance can be brought when House is in session. The budget session, which started from February 23, was in recess and was slated to restart from April 25.

According to observers, the move to push the ordinance on Uttarakhand budget also indicated that the government didn’t want to wait for the legal tussle to end before pushing the budget.

The government’ s move to bring an ordinance might also trigger a fresh political protest as dismissed CM Rawat has threatened to sit on a hunger strike if the Centre passes the budget from Delhi.