Bihar Assembly today passed the vote-on-account for Rs 43,136.52 crore towards the state government's expenditure for four months between April and July this year, during the period general elections are due to be held.
The House passed the Bihar Appropriation (Vote-on-Account) Bill, 2014 by a voice-vote after Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary put it for voting by the members at the fag end of the business of the day.
Though, the passage of the vote-on-account was marred by the BJP members who staged a walkout from the House minutes before Finance Minister In-Charge Vijay Kumar Chaudhary stood up to reply to debate on it.
The BJP members, led by the Leader of Opposition Nand Kishore Yadav, trooped out of the House slamming Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for not introducing the crucial Financial bill himself in his capacity as the Finance Minister.
Replying to the debate on the Vote-on-Account, Chaudhary defended the state government's decision to seek the legislative Assembly's permission for drawal of funds from the treasury to meet its expenditure for four months as a debate on the full-fledged budget of Rs 116.886 crore for 2014-15 was not possible due to short duration of the Budget session.
In view of the general elections knocking at the doors, it was not practical to convene a long session of the state legislature to discuss and pass department-wise budget for the next fiscal as all political parties and their members will be busy in preparations for the Lok Sabha polls, he said.
The debate on the full-fledged budget will take place sometimes after the conclusion of the general elections later this year, Chaudhary said.
