AAP-led Punjab Govt's First Budget Session to Commence on 24th June

The Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government's first budget session will commence in Chandigarh on Friday(June 24). Opposition parties are likely to launch scathing attacks on the AAP government's alleged poor control over law and order issues.

Members of the House will assemble on Friday for obituary references and a motion of thanks on the Governor's address, which will be followed by a discussion. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema is expected to present the budget for 2022-23 on June 27. General discussion on the budget will take place soon after. According to the tentative schedule, the budget session will continue till the very end of this month.

Opposition Congress, the SAD  and the BJP  are gearing up to target the AAP government over alleged deteriorating law and order situation, especially in the wake of May's haunting murder of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala. The opposition has also recently bashed the AAP government over "unfulfilled promises." Meanwhile, Bhagwant Mann had last month said that his government would present a paperless budget.

The Punjab assembly in March this year had passed a vote-on-account for the first three months (April-June) of the financial year 2022-23. The AAP came to power in March after winning a spectacular 92 of the 117 Punjab assembly segments in the state. The AAP government had sought suggestions from the general public for the state budget, which Finance minister Cheema had said would be a "Janta" budget (people's budget).

Notably, the ruling dispensation had received suggestions from the public to allocate more funds to education, health, and agriculture sectors, which sources state, are among the key priority areas of the state government which will reflect in the next week's budget. The Punjab CM had recently stated that the AAP government's focus was to provide jobs to youth, develop schools and hospitals, eradicate corruption and drug mafia, and make the state' Rangla' (vibrant) Punjab again.