Maharashtra: 6-day budget session begins on Monday

MUMBAI: The budget session of the state legislature will begin on Monday. This will be the last session before the Lok Sabha elections. Initially planned for three weeks starting February 18, the session has been curtailed to six days as the model of code of conduct for the polls is expected to come into force in March.
Supplementary demands will be tabled and passed on Tuesday while the vote-on-account, which will have budget provisions till July 31, will be tabled on Wednesday.The provisions will be discussed and passed on Thursday. A two-day debate on the state’s drought situation will also take place on March 1 and 2.
Among the bills to be introduced are for the creation of two self-financed universities —DY Patil at Ambi Talegaon in Pune and K G Somaiya at Vidyavihar. An amendment will be made to the Agricultural Universities Act so that the selection committee to appoint vice-chancellors of such universities can include either the director of Indian Council of Agricultural Research or the regional deputy director.
An amendment bill for the Land Revenue Code is also in the pipeline to benefit small societies. Another important bill is the amendment to the Public Trusts Act, which will allow inclusion of intraocular surgeries in the procedure list for poor patients for whom 10% beds are reserved in charitable hospitals.