Government could give respite to employees. The focus of government is also on atmanirbhar MP; a separate fund could be announced for it in the budget. It would also dwell on the employment opportunities created through Atmanirbhar MP.

For farmers, the government could announce a fund to pay interest on loans. Announcement can also be made on yearly salary increments and DA to employees and pensioners earlier put on hold, to please those who are unhappy over the promotions being stalled. Officials said, the budget has almost been finalised. It would be placed before the cabinet with the suggestions made by the chief minister. A presentation has already been made before the CM and he has given few suggestions. The budget for the year 2021-2022 could be worth Rs 2.25 lakh crore.

The proposed assembly session will be the longest after covid-19 pandemic in the state. During the previous financial year, the state government had presented a budget of Rs 1.84 lakh crore and a supplementary budget of Rs 14,000 crore due to Covid-19 crisis.

In September last year, the three-day MP assembly session was cut short to one day and assembly was adjourned sine die after passing the Finance Bill, 2020 and conducting some other important legislative works.

The winter session of the state assembly was also cancelled after over 50 employees of assembly secretariat and capital project tested positive for Covid-19, along with a few MLAs.

Budget session of the state assembly began on March 16 last year, but was adjourned till March 26 due to political turmoil as Kamal Nath led Congress government fell on March 20 in the MP assembly and BJP returned to power.

Claiming that financial position of the state was precarious Congress claimed that the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has taken a loan of more than Rs 32,600 crore in ten months.

In third week of January, the state took a loan of Rs 1,000 crore, which was the 18th time it borrowed funds after it formed government on March 23, 2020, former minister Jitu Patwari said.

“Last month, the government took a loan of Rs 1000 crore for the 18th time in the ten months. The debt liabilities of the state have crossed Rs 2,50,000 crore,” Patwari claimed. He said that the burden of loan is increasing on the common man who might have to pay more taxes.

In the first six months of Chouhan's fourth term, the BJP government took loans of an average of more than Rs 1,000 crore every month, Congress alleged.

From April to September, the government took Rs 6,500 crore loans. After state government took a loan of Rs 2,000 crore in December last year at 6.76% interest per annum, the Union finance ministry permitted the state to borrow up to Rs 34,000 Crore in the 2020-21 fiscal year of which government has already taken more than Rs 32,600 Crore till date. State Congress alleged that the Chouhan government could take more loans in the fiscal year since it is preparing to present another supplementary budget.

“The government is taking loans and the funds are being spent to publicise that the chief minister is taking tough action on the mafia. The government claims that Chouhan will rid the state of the mafia that he protected for 15 years,” Patwari said.

“A forest guard has been shot dead by the mafia in Dewas, another attempt has been made on the life of a police officer in Gwalior. Mandis have been closed down and 10,000 employees lost their jobs. And the government is spending borrowed money to claim all is well,” he said.

Meanwhile the BJP held a two-day brainstorming session for the party legislators in the holy city of Ujjain. The two day training session was all about party’s plans, strategy and ideology. “But there will be a review of the performance of our MLAs. BJP is ready for any election and MLAs have been told to deal with every issue in the interest of the party,” said BJP state spokesperson Rajneesh Agarwal.

Sources in the BJP disclosed that after the review of previous assembly elections, especially the recent by-polls, it was revealed that internal differences among leaders, after some outsiders joined the saffron party have create a rift. Factions have also emerged in the party after Jyotiraditya Scindia loyalists joined BJP and also succeeded in getting tickets,. This has upset many senior leaders.

“It’s clear: Those who perform, will be promoted and those who fail, will face the consequences. Review is an ongoing process and after the civic polls, eyes will on the 2023 assembly elections and finally on the Lok Sabha polls in 2024” said a senior state BJP functionary.

Sources also disclosed that the party will collect feedback and review the performance of legislators before distributing tickets for the 2023 polls. “The works undertaken by the legislators are under continuous monitoring” he said. (IPA Service)