The second part of the budget session of Parliament begins on Monday (March 14) and will continue till April 8. During this, the opposition can try to surround the government on many matters including rising unemployment, cut interest rate on Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and evacuation of Indians trapped in war-torn Ukraine.
Seeking Parliament’s approval for budgetary proposals and presenting the budget for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be on the top of the government’s agenda. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget for Jammu and Kashmir on Monday and it is likely to be discussed in the House during the post-lunch proceedings.
Second part of session starting after election results
The government has also listed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill for consideration and passing in the Lok Sabha. In the first phase of the budget session, from January 29 to February 11, the proceedings of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were conducted in two different shifts.
This time due to the improvement in the situation related to COVID-19, the proceedings of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will run concurrently from 11 am. The second phase of the Parliament session will begin at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab a few days ago. .
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Earlier, the first phase of the budget session began on January 29 with President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the joint session of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in the Central Hall of Parliament, followed by the presentation of the Economic Survey. After this, Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget on February 1, after which the President’s Address and the Motion of Thanks to the Union Budget were discussed.
Congress leaders prepared strategy for budget session
Meanwhile, Congress President Sonia Gandhi chaired a meeting of the Parliamentary Strategy Committee of the Congress at her residence and decided to work in coordination with like-minded political parties during the budget session. Top Congress leaders on Sunday discussed the party’s strategy for the budget session of Parliament starting Monday and decided to take up important issues of public interest with like-minded parties.
Congress Parliamentary Strategy Group meeting was held at party president Sonia Gandhi’s residence. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters after the meeting that we discussed the issues to be raised in the budget session of Parliament starting Monday. We will work in coordination with like-minded parties to raise important issues of public interest during the session.
He said that the issue of safe evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine, inflation, unemployment, workers’ issue, minimum support price to farmers etc. are among the issues which will be raised in this session. Leaders like Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, K Suresh, Manickam Tagore and Manish Tewari attended the meeting.
The Congress Parliamentary Strategy Group meets before each session of Parliament. The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) on Saturday decided to reduce the interest rate on EPF from 8.5 percent to 8.1 percent. Opposition parties are likely to demand a statement from the government on the evacuation of Indians stranded in war-torn Ukraine.
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