The Chhattisgarh annual budget for the financial year 2020-21 was passed without discussion in the state assembly on Thursday with the Speaker applying “guillotine” amid cries of protest from the opposition bench.

This was first time in the history that  guillotine—that allows demands for grants to be put to vote at once, whether they have been discussed or not—was adopted in the state assembly.

The speaker applied ‘guillotine’ as the prescribed period for the discussion on demands for grants was truncated.

The Chhattisgarh assembly, which was scheduled to end on April 1, had been to truncated and adjourned sine die on Thursday due to the novel coronavirus outbreak and the nation-wide lockdown.

Apart from it, more than a dozen other bills were also passed without any discussions.

Opposition members, however, demanded discussions and boycotted the assembly proceedings in protest.

The assembly session began with the House condemning the killings of 17 security personnel in an attack by Maoist rebels, a couple of days back. The members of the treasury and the opposition benches condoled the deaths of the martyred police personnel.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Leader of Opposition Dharamlal Kaushik too expressed their grief over the killings.

Speaker then proposed for a meeting of the business advisory committee,  which the opposition members opposed.

The BJP legislator Brijmohan Agrawal objected to the move, demanding that a discussion on the bills be held and put to voice vote.

Agrawal’s proposal was rejected as 67 legislators objected the motion and only 14 lawmakers were in support of it.

Chief Minister,  then read out the budget demand of more than Rs 1.02 lakh crore and the House passed it with the Speaker applying  guillotine

Later, the Speaker adjourned the house sine die amid a boycott by the     opposition legislators.