Budget Session of Parl begins today; Oppn ready to grill govt on jobs, inflation, Manipur

New Delhi: The Budget Session of Parliament begins here on Wednesday with the address of President Draupadi Murmu to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. It will be the last session of the present 17th Lok Sabha as well as the present government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as general elections are scheduled to be held in April-May.

The government has urged opposition parties to cooperate in the smooth conduct of the proceedings of the session which is scheduled to go on till February 9.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Interim Budget on February 1. The new government will present the full-fledged Budget after it assumes office.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told a meeting of floor leaders of political parties in Parliament that Sitharaman will also present the Budget for Jammu and Kashmir, which is under the President’s Rule.

He said the main agenda of the 17th Lok Sabha’s brief session, set to conclude on February 9, was the President’s Address, presentation of the Interim Budget and the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address with a reply by Prime Minister Modi.

Opposition leaders raised a range of issues during the meeting of floor leaders chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Congress leader K Suresh said the party would raise the issue of unemployment, high inflation, agrarian distress, and the situation in ethnic violence-hit Manipur during the session.

Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the finance

minister should include the pending dues to West Bengal on account of various central schemes in the Interim Budget.

“It is unfortunate that a chief minister has to sit on a dharna to demand timely allocation of central dues to the state,” he said.

Samajwadi Party leader S T Hassan demanded steps to strengthen the

Places of Worship Act that freezes the status of religious places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947, and prohibits their conversion while ensuring the maintenance of their religious character.

Emerging from the customary all-party meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joshi described the interaction as “very cordial” and said the government was ready to discuss every issue during the brief session. Joshi said the government did not have any legislative agenda for the Budget Session.

NCP President Sharad Pawar, JD(U)’s Ram Nath Thakur and TDP’s Jayadev Galla were among the leaders present at the meeting at the Parliament House complex.

Congress Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari, who represented the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, said he raised the issue of the “violent attack” on the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi in Assam and the state government’s curbs on it.

It is a customary practice ahead of every session to convene a meeting of all political parties as leaders of different parties highlight the issues they want to raise in Parliament, and the government seeks their cooperation.