India, March 4 -- On the first day of the Maharashtra assembly's budget session, the state government on Monday tabled supplementary demands of Rs.6,486 crore, taking the total supplementary budget for the financial year 2024-25 to Rs.1,37,163 crore.

This means the supplementary or additional demands are a whopping 22.4% of the Rs.6.12 lakh crore budget sanctioned last year, which experts said indicated fiscal indiscipline caused by the launch of populist schemes such as the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana ahead of the Assembly polls last year.

"The size of the supplementary budget is the highest in recent times, if not in history," said an official from the state finance department. "The allocations for flagship schemes like Ladki Bahin were ...