Panchkula (Haryana) [India], March 5 (HBTV): A glimpse of women empowerment was seen in the pre-budget consultation meeting organised to take suggestions for the budget 2025-26 in Sector-1, Panchkula today under the chairmanship of Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who is also the Finance Minister of the state.

The chief minister first allowed female MLAs to speak and put forward their suggestions. Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal spoke first.

More than 25 MLAs gave suggestions in the first session of the meeting. The second session will be held tomorrow. The Opposition MLAs expressed their gratitude to the Chief Minister for continuing the tradition started by former Chief Minister Manohar Lal of inviting suggestions before the budget.

A key feature of this meeting was that out of 90 MLAs, 40 MLAs have been elected for the first time in the 14th Vidhan Sabha, and they expressed their gratitude to the Chief Minister for providing an open house platform to give suggestions in the budget.

Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Rajesh Khullar, besides Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, and Heads of Departments of all departments, were present in the meeting. All the officers noted the suggestions given by the MLAs. The Chief Minister assured that good suggestions would be included in the budget.

The Chief Minister said that even before this, pre-budget meetings have been organised in Faridabad, Gurugram, Panipat, and Hisar. Last year, 407 suggestions were received, which were included in the budget.

Apart from this, suggestions have also been taken from startups, young women entrepreneurs, women representatives, and self-help groups, with about 10,000 suggestions received.

He assured that the upcoming budget will meet the expectations of 2.80 crore people of the state. Apart from the budget, some MLAs also placed the demands of their area before the Chief Minister.

In the meeting, the MLAs demanded the establishment of an MLA Vikas Nidhi Fund and an increase in the limit of demand for MLAs to INR 5 crore in five years for development works in their area. (ANI)