THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Brushing off the Opposition’s demand that Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac step down to take responsibility for the budget ‘leak’, Culture Minister A K Balan said on Sunday the only question the lapse had raised was that of propriety.
“Not a single paper of the budget was leaked,” Balan said.
Soon after the budget presentation on Friday, the UDF had petitioned Governor P Sathasivam, alleging a violation of the oath of secrecy by Isaac, as the budget was leaked from the Minister’s office.
“Not a single paper was leaked. The budget is replete with references to MT (writer M T Vasudevan Nair). Can you show a single line concerning MT in the papers that came out? What came out was a press release that should have been released after the presentation. So it’s only a question of propriety,” Balan said on the sidelines of a function here. It was unfortunate the press release was made public before the end of the presentation, he said.