VIJAYAWADA: The Budget session of the AP Legislature will commence on May 20. Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan on Thursday issued separate notifications for summoning the Session of AP Legislative Council and AP Legislative Assembly on May 20.
Both the Houses will convene at 9 am and sources say that the Governor will address the members of both the Houses through a video conference.The practice of the Governor addressing the members of both the Houses in a joint session will be done away with owing to the Covid pandemic and members of Assembly and Council will sit in their respective Houses to ensure social distancing.
Sources said that the budget session is likely to be a one-day affair. It is learnt that immediately after the completion of the Governor’s address, the Business Advisory Committee meeting will be convened by the Speaker of the Assembly and the Chairman of the Council to decide the number of days of sitting and the agenda of the session. The government will table the Budget in both the Houses for passage and the Houses will be adjourned after passing the same without any discussion, the sources said.
Though the budget for the 2021-22 fiscal was supposed to passed by the AP Legislature before commencement of the new fiscal on April 1, the government opted to go for a vote-on-account through an Ordinance for meeting the expenditure in the first three months of the new financial year, instead of convening the Session due to local body elections and Covid.
Though the government has time to pass the full budget, the government decided to convene the session as it is mandatory for the House to be in session before June 4 as the last session was adjourned sine die on December 4.It is mandatory that a six months gap should not be there between its last sitting and the subsequent one.