The Speaker asked the House to expunge the proceedings.
Jaipur:
Opposition BJP members protested in the Rajasthan Assembly on Friday soon after Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot started presenting the much-awaited state budget, alleging that he was reading from the old budget. BJP further said the budget has technically leaked, as state government officials rushed to get the budget copy. Nobody else but the Chief Minister should bring the budget copy, but this one went through four-five hands, BJP’s Pratap Singh Singhvi, MLA from Chhabra, said, demanding the Chief Minister bring a new budget.
Mr Gehlot read out excerpts from the previous budget, on urban employment and krishi budget, instead of Budget 2023-24. As soon as he made the first two announcements, which featured in Budget 2022-23, the Opposition began creating a ruckus and rushed into the well of the House.
BJP leader and former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said that a Chief Minister coming to the Assembly without reading or checking the budget he is going to present shows how he is governing his state. “Such a state will definitely suffer,” she said.
“The Chief Minister kept reading the old budget for eight minutes. This is a historic first. I have also been the Chief Minister; I used to read the budget twice, even thrice, and checked everything before taking it in my hands. A Chief Minister who can bring such a big document into the house without checking it, and read the old budget, you can understand how secure the state is in his hands,” Ms Raje added.
Union Minister and Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat mocked the Chief Minister, saying he campaigned for a new budget but read out the old one.
“Gehlot ji remains very careless, campaigned for this year’s budget and started reading the old budget!
The public was thinking of a light of relief in the darkness spread by misrule, here the Chief Minister’s light went off.
Don’t know if we should laugh or cry!” he tweeted.
गजब बे-सुध रहते हैं गहलोत जी, इस साल के बजट का चुनावी प्रचार किया और पढ़ने लगे पुराना बजट!
जनता कुशासन से फैले अंधकार में राहत की रोशनी की सोच रही थी यहां मुख्यमंत्री की बत्ती ही गुल हो गई।
समझ नहीं आ रहा, हंसे या रोएं!#RajasthanBudgetpic.twitter.com/3n9vGIMowU
— Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (@gssjodhpur) February 10, 2023
Speaker CP Joshi asked the opposition to maintain order, but the Opposition continued its uproar, leading to the House being adjourned. The Speaker asked the House to expunge the proceedings.
After the adjournment, BJP MLAs staged a sit-in inside the well of the House.
