CHENNAI: There was an uproar in the assembly on Tuesday after DMK hit out at the finance minister D Jayakumar for taking the TN budget briefcase to Jayalalithaa 's burial site on March 16, ahead of tabling it in the state assembly. DMK working president M K Stalin alleged that the minister had violated norms.Jayakumar, however, justified his visit to the former CM's memorial saying it was to seek the blessings of the departed leader and none should read beyond that. The opposition, he said, should discuss more important issues like revenue receipts and deficit in the state budget.Visuals of the minister placing the budget briefcase on the memorial were widely played out by the media, before he presented the Edappadi K Palaniswami government's maiden budget.The exchange started when Jayakumar alleged that DMK which was part of successive coalition governments at the Centre for 17 years did little to get adequate share from the Central taxes. He reeled out the statistics suggesting that the previous DMK regime received between 6,393 crore and 10,913 crore under the Central share."Had you availed the opportunity and pushed for higher allocation, the state would not have gone to this state (of strained finances)," he said, taking a dig at DMK MLA T Udhyasuriyan for his reference to the manner in which he brought the budget document to the House. While DMK MLAs opposed the ministers' remarks, Stalin rose to say that DMK was instrumental in bringing the Chennai Port-Maduravoyal elevated corridor, Golden Quadrilateral highway and Chennai metro rail. "But instead of maintaining the secrecy of the budget document, you took it away to the memorial. Is it correct?" the DMK leader said, triggering an uproar in the House.Denying leak of the budget document and violation of norms, the finance minister said, "Do you know if there was a budget document inside?" Stalin shot back, "So did you place an empty bag then?" The commotion continued until the chair intervened to expunge certain remarks of both leaders.

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