Date:26/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/26/stories/2008022657841000.htm

National

West Bengal budget on March 14

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The budget session of the West Bengal Assembly will begin on March 6, with Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s address. Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta will present the budget proposals for 2008-09 on March 14.

Speaker H.A. Halim said on Monday that discussions on the Governor’s address would continue for four days beginning March 10.

Though the session is to last less than three weeks, it is expected to be stormy.

Legislators of the All India Forward Bloc, a constituent of the ruling Left Front, are likely to protest against the police firing in Dinhata earlier this month in which five of its supporters were killed.

Opposition

The Trinamool Congress will reiterate its opposition to the Tata Motors’ car-manufacturing project at Singur, where commercial production is expected to start from October. The party leadership has stated that its agitation against the project will continue until those plots of land, alleged to have been forcibly acquired from the peasants, were returned.