Budget official on lock-in duty loses father, refuses to leave printing area

Finance ministry on Friday paid homage to the exceptional devotion to work demonstrated by Kuldeep Kumar Sharma, Deputy Manager of the government press, responsible for printing reams of budget documents.

While finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her second budget on Saturday in Parliament, a thought will especially go out to a man who ensured that there was no spanner in the works while the printing of the super-secret budget document was going on, despite have suffered a monumental personal tragedy.

The Budget documents are perhaps the most secretive document that the government produces annually before it is made public. (Photo Pradeep Gaur/Mint)

Finance ministry on Friday paid homage to the exceptional devotion to work demonstrated by Kuldeep Kumar Sharma, Deputy Manager of the government press, responsible for printing reams of budget documents to be presented by the Union minister and distributed among MPs, officials and the media.

Sharma lost his father on the Republic Day, when the highly secret printing process was in its full swing, and he himself was in the lock-in—a period when no official involved in the printing of the budget is allowed to go home—yet he did not leave the press area and stayed put at the task at hand.

“Informing with regret that Shri Kuldeep Kumar Sharma, Dy Manager (Press), lost his father on 26 Jan, 2020. Being on budget duty, he was on job in the lock-in. In spite of his immense loss, Sharma decided not to leave the press area even for a minute,” a tweet by the finance ministry said.

Another tweet in tribute to Sharma’s extraordinary display of duty said Sharma was “the key hand” needed to complete budget document printing task within a very tight schedule. The man with 31 years of experience in “budget process” didn’t leave and displayed “exemplary commitment”, by ignoring personal loss, the tweet added.

The Budget documents are perhaps the most secretive document that the government produces annually before it is made public. It is printed in the north block basement under very tight security and the staff is not allowed to leave the premises for 7-10 days, covering the period of printing and its presentation in the Parliament. The printing usually begins a week in advance with the famous Halwa ceremony.

When Nirmala Sitharaman enters the parliament with the entire country’s gaze fixed on her “bahi-khata” (budget document), Sharma will know that he had a hand in it.