New Delhi: It is mission Budget 2018. While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be presenting the Union Budget before Parliament on February 1, there is a team of over hundred officials who will be spending more than a week in the ministry building till D-day with no social interaction.
Official sources from the Finance Ministry told News18 that there are 110 officials who are staying inside North Block building that houses the Ministry of Finance.
“110 officials, including section officers, undersecretaries and others involved with the preparation of the Union Budget, have been staying in the ministry building since January 24. These officials are not allowed to step out or talk to family members,” said a Finance Ministry official on condition of anonymity.
The official also informed that there are doctors stationed inside the premises to tackle emergency medical situations.
This core team of civil servants is working to prepare one of the most well-guarded documents in the country. The use of both fixed-line and mobile phones are banned as the officials work in the quarantine zone inside the building.
The Finance Ministry has been under quarantine since December 1. This process of quarantine is observed every year to avoid any leak of information.
Jaitley’s Budget team has Ministers of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla and Pon Radhakrishnan, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar.
The team headed by Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, Economic Affairs Secretary SC Garg, Expenditure Secretary AN Jha, Disinvestment Secretary NK Gupta and Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar has hundreds of junior of officials involved.
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