Speaker directs Govt to enquire leakage of budget proposals

Monday, March 19, 2012: Kerala Assembly Speaker G Karthikeyan today asked the state government to hold an inquiry into leakage to the press of details of certain proposals in the budget presented in the House today.
Opposition Leader VS Achuthanandan raised the issue before Finance Minister KM Mani began reading his budget speech. Though the Speaker assured the Opposition the matter would be examined, they protested in the well of the house against the alleged leakage and the budget proposal to increase retirement age of government employees from 55 years to 56.
After the budget presentation, the Speaker informed the house that he had examined the matter and certain proposals in the budget had appeared in the press. As per precedents in Parliament and the state assembly, the Speaker directed the government to submit a report after inquiring how certain proposals in the budget were leaked to the press.