KCR govt relents, to allow Governor's Budget session address

The impasse over Governor's approval for the Telangana annual state budget ended on Monday with the K Chandrasekhar Rao government compromising to allow Tamilisai Soundararajan's address on the opening day of the assembly session.

The session last year was held without the customary governor's address, a decision that annoyed Soundararajan. The government asserted that the previous session was not prorogued and as such there was no technical need for the speech in the continuing session.

This year too, the BRS government was prepared to hold the session bypassing the convention again.

Amid the ongoing confrontation between the Raj Bhavan and Pragathi Bhavan over several issues, the Governor this time deferred her consent for the introduction of the 2023-24 budget in the assembly on Friday. The government sent the draft document to her on January 21.

“The governor had also replied, wanting to know if the government had included her address on the opening day. There was no response,” a Raj Bhavan official told DH.

With only three days left for the budget introduction, the BRS government on Monday filed a petition before the Telangana HC seeking direction for the Governor to approve the finance bill.

The court which reviewed the acceptability of the petition related to the functioning of the executive and legislature, government and governor, later accepted it.

However, in the afternoon, the KCR government withdrew its plea. It was also submitted to the court that the budget session would begin with the governor's address.

Following the development, state legislative affairs minister Prashanth Reddy and senior officials met the Governor at the Raj Bhavan in the evening to apprise her of the decision.