Telangana Budget Sessions: Congress to present budget on February 10; KCR skips day one

Hyderabad: The interim budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year will be presented by the Telangana State government on February 10. The schedule for the Budget Session was finalised on Thursday during the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting presided over by speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar, which marked the first day of the Telangana Budget Sessions.

Telangana Assembly Budget Sessions till February 13

The Budget Session that started on Thursday with the Governor's address will be conducted for four days and will conclude on February 13. The discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s address, followed by a reply from the chief minister to the discussion, will take place on February 9.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, along with deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, ministers D Sridhar Babu and Ponnam Prabhakar, Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader Kadiyam Srihari, AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, BJP MLA Maheswar Reddy and CPI MLA K Sambasiva Rao participated in the meeting.

Harish Rao walks out of BAC meeting

BRS leader and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao who participated in the BAC meeting walked out in the middle after minister D Sridhar Babu objected. Harish Rao participated in the meeting on behalf of KCR. Reacting to it, Sridhar Babu said that they did not ask anyone to leave the meeting. “I appealed to the speaker to only allow the members to participate in the meeting whose names are proposed,” he said.

KCR skips Governor’s speech

On the other hand, BRS president and Gajwel MLA K Chandrashekhar Rao skipped day one of the Assembly Budget Sessions and Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan’s speech. The BRS leaders said that KCR will attend the sessions on February 10. BRS Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy arrived at the Assembly in an auto rickshaw as a mark of protest for the losses being incurred by auto-rickshaw drivers after the Congress came to power.

BRS decries smaller chamber for KCR

On day one of the Assembly Budget sessions, the Congress Government rearranged the opposition leader’s chambers from the one designated for the previous session to a smaller one. Outraged by the move, BRS MLAs called speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar to voice their displeasure over the decision to transfer the chambers assigned to former chief minister and Opposition leader KCR.

Revanth Reddy said that the decision to rearrange the opposition leader’s chamber was taken by speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar and there is no specific reason for it. In a chit-chat with the media at Assembly premises, the chief minister said that a resolution will be passed on the caste census in Telangana during the ongoing budget sessions.

“If the speaker thinks there is a need to discuss on various aspects, the Assembly budget sessions are likely to be extended. It was the BRS government which handed over the projects on Krishna River to Krishna River Management Board (KRMB). That’s why the people in the Krishna River basin did not vote for the BRS in the elections. As a chief minister, I will meet anyone, even KCR,” Revanth Reddy said.