Paperless project to be delayed, may be implemented partially
*Double sittings if business is more: Rather
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Jan 11: Legislative Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather met Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to discuss budget session schedule including the date on which Omar, who also holds charge of the Finance Department, will present his budget. Following the meeting, the budget session calendar is expected to be released soon.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
“The budget session calendar will be released soon. Details of total sittings are being worked out but it will be in two parts as mentioned earlier,” Rather told the Excelsior saying the budget will be passed in first half while rest of the business will be taken up in second half.
On double sittings, the Speaker said it will depend on business before the House. “If there is less time and the business is more, we can hold double sittings,” he added.
On the Assembly going paperless as per the ongoing project, Rather said he will be holding a meeting of the senior officers in next two to three days to review the work.
“We will see to what extent we can implement the project. If we are unable to fully implement the paperless project, we will try to do it partially,” he added.
Meanwhile, as per the sources, the Legislative Assembly Speaker met Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and discussed budget session details with him including the date on which he will present the budget.
“Various other issues also came up for discussion,” the sources said.
They added that Omar, who is also the Finance Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, is likely to present his second budget between February 5-7 as the Finance Department will be requiring couple of days to finalize the figures after presentation of Central budget by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament on February 1.
As the Union Territory gets Central grants in the annual budget, Jammu and Kashmir will have to wait for presentation of budget by Sitharaman before finalization of the budget here including total amount of the budget for the financial year of 2026-27.
Sitharaman held a meeting yesterday with Finance Ministers of the States and Union Territories in New Delhi as part of pre-budget consultations. Omar Abdullah attended the meeting.
Budget session of the Legislature here will start on February 2 with the address of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. Generally, the debate on the LG’s address is held for 2-3 days followed by the Chief Minister’s reply and the budget is presented the next day.
Budget for next financial year will be second to be presented by Omar Abdullah. He is expected to table the pre-budget Economic Survey a day ahead of the budget presentation in the House.
Current financial year’s budget (2025-26) presented by Omar in the Assembly on March 7, 2025 was to the tune of Rs 1,12,310 crore down from 1,18, 728 crore of 2024-25. In 2023-24, J&K’s budget was worth Rs 1,18,500 crore.
In 2025, Omar presented J&K’s first budget in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly after six years as last budget was tabled in the House in 2018 when then Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu in the PDP-BJP coalition Government headed by Mehbooba Mufti. The BJP had withdrawn support to the PDP on June 19, 2018 leading to imposition of President’s Rule. The budget for 2019-20 was adopted by the State Administrative Council in December 2018 while rest of the budgets were presented in Parliament till Omar Abdullah Government was formed following Assembly elections in September-October 2024.
As reported, budget session of the Legislature will start on February 2 with the address of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to the MLAs at 10 AM.
The budget is expected to be passed before start of fasting month of Ramzan around February 20 while rest of the business is likely to be taken up after Eid celebrations on March 21.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
