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Speaker appreciates patience shown by members during Budget speech
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday recorded his appreciation for Nirmala Sitharaman for being the first full fledged woman Finance Minister to present the Union Budget for fiscal 2019-20.
New Delh: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday recorded his appreciation for Nirmala Sitharaman for being the first full fledged woman Finance Minister to present the Union Budget for fiscal 2019-20.
At the end of the marathon speech lasting for 135 minutes, Birla, a second time MP who is also the new Speaker of the recently constituted 17th Lok Sabha, thanked the members for listening to Sitharaman's maiden budget proposals in rapt attention.
On some earlier occasions during the Budget presentation, opposition members especially from regional parties used to raise their concerns rather noisily. The Speaker observed that the attention shown by members deserved appreciation.
Besides being the first full fledged woman Finance Minister to present the Budget, she also broke the tradition of carrying the budget papers in a briefcase. For a change, it was maroon coloured 'Bahi Khata (folder)' which she carried to the Lok Sabha.
Sitharaman also matched the file colour with her maroon sari. Her more than two hour long Budget speech was laced with Urdu couplet, quotations from Chanakya, the ancient India's philosopher and economist, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi.
To the amusement of members from Tamil Nadu, Sitharaman narrated an old Tamil saying as she began the part B of the speech which deals with tax proposals. DMK's Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja were seen relishing the moment. (UNI)