Session begins on Feb. 21, Budget to be on Feb. 28
The Budget Session of Parliament will begin on February 21 and the General Budget will be presented in the Lok Sabha on February 28.
However, uncertainty still hangs over the peaceful conduct of the Budget Session as the entire Winter Session in 2010 was washed out due to the government-Opposition deadlock over demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe in the allocation of 2G Spectrum could not be resolved.
Keeping in mind the fact that the Opposition parties have threatened to carry forward their demand on the JPC probe, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also the Leader of the Lok Sabha, has convened a meeting of leaders of political parties on February 8 in an apparent bid to break the deadlock in Parliament.
The meeting has been convened for “mutual consultations” over the Budget Session of Parliament, sources said.
President Pratibha Patil had in her Republic Day address made it clear that it was the joint responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament. But both the Opposition and the government are firm on their stand for and against a JPC probe.
The coming Budget Session will be in two stages — the first from February 21 up to March 16 and second from April 4 to April 21. Usually, the Budget Session ends up by the first week of May, but this year the session has been curtailed in view of Assembly elections due in early May in states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry. The Budget Session will start on February 21 with the President’s address to a joint sitting of both the Houses (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) outlining the government’s policies and programmes for the next financial year.
The Railway Budget and the Economic Survey will be presented to the Lower House on February 25. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will present the General Budget.
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PM: Things not what they ought to be
Age Correspondent
NEW DELHI
Jan. 31: With the threat of Parliament’s forthcoming Budget Session facing serious disruption looming large, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that “things are not what they ought to be” in Parliament.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said this while releasing an MPs’ magazine called Central Hall in the capital on Monday. Stating that Parliament is a “primary forum for discussion, dialogue, legislation” he added, “I don’t think anybody would deny that things are not what they used to be.”
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