Pre-budget meeting of Haryana highlights women empowerment, women MLAs gets first opportunity to speak, put forth their suggestions

According to a press release, this meeting, chaired by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who is also the Finance Minister, was held on Monday in Panchkula.

Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal was the first to speak, followed by more than 25 MLAs who made suggestions in the first session, which will be followed by the second session tomorrow.

Notably, 40 MLAs elected for the first time in the 14th Vidhan Sabha expressed their gratitude to the Chief Minister for providing an open platform to make suggestions on the budget.

The Chief Minister assured that all good suggestions would be included in the budget. This move continues the tradition started by former Chief Minister Manohar Lal of inviting suggestions before the budget.

Last year, 407 suggestions were received and included in the budget. Additionally, suggestions were taken from startups, young women entrepreneurs, women representatives, and self-help groups, totaling around 10,000 suggestions.

The Opposition MLAs expressed their gratitude to the Chief Minister for continuing the tradition former Chief Minister Manohar Lal started of inviting suggestions before the budget.

Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Rajesh Khullar, and Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, and Heads of Departments of all departments were present at the meeting. All the officers noted the suggestions given by the MLAs.

The CM assured that the upcoming budget would meet the expectations of the state's 2.80 crore people. In addition to the budget, some MLAs also presented the demands of their area to the Chief Minister.

Some MLAs also presented demands for their areas, including the establishment of an MLA Vikas Nidhi Fund and increasing the limit of demand for MLAs to Rs 5 crore in 5 years for development works.