Session could be rescheduled

The Budget Session of Parliament will be rescheduled to allow political parties and members to take part in the campaign for seven-phase Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

The Budget Session of Parliament will be rescheduled to allow political parties and members to take part in the campaign for seven-phase Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

The demand to reschedule the session was made by leaders of political parties who attended the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s luncheon meeting today. The government will come up with a revised schedule on February 26 at the Business Advisory Committee meeting of the two Houses.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said, “The session would rescheduled in a manner that the number of sittings do not get reduced. It would be decided at the BAC meeting of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.”

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The first-half of the session was to continue till March 21 and break for a 27-day recess to allow Standing Committees to go through the demands-of-grants of various ministries, which need to be adopted by the Houses by May 14. The second-half of the session—which is now clashing with the UP polls—was to meet on April 18 and continue till May 22.

It is likely that the first-half is curtailed by a few days after the Railway and the General budgets are presented. “This would allow the Standing Committees to deliver the grants in time for passage,” sources said.

There will be an attempt to wrap up the second-half before the UP polls begin. “If the House meets after the polls get over on May 8, there would not be enough time to pass the grants,” the sources said.

Given the fact that the Speaker is against curtailing the overall number of sittings, the government has to do a lot of calculations. It is also an embarrassment for the government that the session has to be reschedule after President APJ Kalam’s notification calling it has been issued.