Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Kolkata on Sunday that there should be no problem in placing the Union Budget in Parliament on February 29 as scheduled despite Assembly elections then being held in five states.
“The Union Budget is usually presented on the last date of February. Next year being a leap year, the Budget is likely to be placed on February 29. The elections to all the state Assemblies, except Goa, will be over by that date,” he told reporters in Kolkata. “So I don’t think there will be any problem.”
In New Delhi, chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi echoed this, saying he doesn’t see any problem in Budget presentation on the normal schedule. “Except in Goa, we will be completing the elections in all four states by February 28, leaving February 29 for the Budget. I have nothing to do with it. Our feeling was that if the Budget does not have anything special for Goa, then there is no problem.”
Mr Quraishi added: “Ideally, I shouldn’t comment (on) what the government does.”
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Fratricide kills 3 CRPF men at kashmir camp
Yusuf Jameel
Srinagar, Dec. 25
In the latest fratricide incident affecting the security forces in Kashmir, three CRPF personnel were killed and another injured at a camp in Kulgam district late Saturday night.
Officials said Sunday the three killed in shooting inside the CRPF’s 18th Battalion barracks were head constables Suman Pillay, P. Sibbu and Javed Hussein. Pillay and Sibbu died on the spot, while Hussein died on the way to hospital. A fourth jawan, S.D. Murthy, is fighting for his life in hospital. All four were drivers.
The police detained six jawans, but the shooter is yet to be identified.