Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar tables ₹8,609 crore supplementary demands

Maharashtra government tables ₹8,609 crore supplementary demands in Budget session; anticipates populist pre-poll sops in upcoming Budget.

On the first day of the five-day Budget session of the State Legislature, the Maharashtra government on Monday tabled supplementary demands amounting to ₹8,609 crore.

Deputy Chief Minister and State Finance Minister Ajit Pawar presented these additional fund requirements, exceeding the budgetary allocation, in both the Legislative Assembly and Council. “I table the supplementary demands of ₹8,609 .17 crore before the House,” Mr. Pawar announced.

The supplementary demand note highlighted a sum of ₹2,210 crore allocated for providing financial assistance to farmers affected by unseasonal showers, hailstorms, and water scarcity, resulting in crop destruction. During the Winter session in December last year, supplementary demands totalling ₹55,520.77 crore were presented in the State Legislature and later approved.

Mr. Pawar, who also heads the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), will present the interim Budget for 2024-25 on Tuesday. The discussions on the presented Budget will take place on February 28 and March 1.

As the Lok Sabha election is scheduled for April-May and State Assembly elections are set for September-October, there is anticipation for the announcement of populist pre-poll sops in the upcoming Budget. The provisions will be made in the vote-on-account for four months from April 1 to July 31.

Both Houses paid tributes to late former Lok Sabha Speaker and former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Manohar Joshi, who passed away last week. It also remembered BJP MLA Rajendra Patni, who recently died.

Manohar Joshi, the first Chief Minister of undivided Shiv Sena from 1995 to 1999, also served as a Member of Parliament and Lok Sabha Speaker from 2002 to 2004 during the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He succumbed to a cardiac arrest at the age of 86 in a Mumbai hospital on Friday.