Stage set for month-long UP legislature budget session

The month-long budget session of the Uttar Pradesh legislature commences on Thursday with a joint sitting of both the houses even as Opposition parties geared up to nail the government, especially on the law and order front.
Besides the address to the joint sitting by Governor Ram Naik on February 8, the government is scheduled to present the budget for the next fiscal on February 16, Vidhan Sabha secretariat said today.
This will be the first full fledged budget of the Yogi Adityanath government which came to power last year with a thumping majority.
After forming its government in March 2017, the Adityanath government had presented its first budget in July last year, three months into the financial year.

The government was busy giving final touches to the budget, which is all the more significant, as the Lok Sabha polls are scheduled early next year. There are 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, a majority of which were won by the BJP in 2014.
Opposition parties will raise pressing issues concerning the state during the session.

We will be raising all pressing issues connected with the lives of poor, farmers, youth, unemployed, and also law and order, Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu said.
"The dismal situation of the potato growers who are forced to dump their produce on the roads, problems of cane growers, fake encounters, Barabanki hooch tragedy, special package for Bundelkhand, dearth of jobs, government's failure to distribute woollen clothes and books to school children and other issues will be raised," Lallu said.

A senior Samajwadi Party leader said that his party will grill the government on attempts to communalise and vitiate the atmosphere leading to Kasganj-like incidents in the state.
SP leaders are chalking out a plan to seek answers from the government over different issues including the "dismal law and order situation and a sense of insecurity among women", he said.
It will, however, be seen if Assembly Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit's warning of action against Opposition members protesting on the floor of the house will act as a deterrent.
After the last session of the House witnessed unruly scenes, Dixit had warned that he might consider taking action against the protestors.

"If the members express sudden provocation that can be addressed but if they come with posters, banners and display them in the House as a mark of collective protest in a planned manner, it amounts to showing disrespect to the House," Dixit had said.