Punjab interim budget: Focus on social security, education

The detailed budget of Punjab is expected to be presented in the coming days. The interim budget is the first to be presented by the Aam Aadmi Party government after its landslide victory in the recent assembly polls.

Chandigarh:Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday presented an interim vote on account budget-2022-23 of Rs 37,120 crore for the first three months. The vote on account budget, which refers to the expenditure for the initial months, was passed by the state assembly with the approval of the Parliament.

The detailed budget of Punjab is expected to be presented in the coming days. The interim budget is the first to be presented by the Aam Aadmi Party government after its landslide victory in the recent assembly polls. The Punjab government sought the consent of the House for the financial expenditure of Rs 37,120 crore for the first three months of April, May and June.

In the vote on account presented today, Rs 696 crore has been kept for social security and Rs 463 crore for education. Earlier, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann proposed to install a statue of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh and Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar in the Punjab Legislative Assembly to which Congress MLA Pratap Singh Bajwa said that a statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh should be installed as well, a proposal accepted by the Chief Minister.

The AAP government is also considering a pension for MLAs. Saying that people “have the right to know what their elected representatives do inside the House and how many issues they raise” the Punjab CM said that there will not be a “single question from the legislators of the opposition party, which his government will not answer”.

Mann also underscored the need for live coverage of the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly saying there will be “no need for MLAs to make secret videos to inform the people of their areas whether they should make their point in the House or not”.