Issues that will rock Parliament in the Budget session

Santosh Kumar Pathak

New Delhi, Jan 30 (IANS) The Budget Session of Parliament set to commence from Monday and being the first session of the year, as per tradition, will begin with the President's Address.

Amid the Covid threat, the session will see many restrictions and even except for the first two days, it has been decided to run both the Houses -- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha -- in two shifts.

The session is beginning just a few days before the Assembly polls in five states and it is therefore most likely that issues related to these poll-bound states would be taken up in the Houses.

Similarly, the farmers' organisations are again gearing up to raise their demand for the MSP before the government and this issue would also be raised during the session by the opposition.

Meanwhile, the impact of the disclosures related to the Pegasus made by a foreign English newspaper just before the Parliament session is also expected to rock Parliament.

On the first day, at 11 a.m. President Ram Nath Kovind will address a joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament. The proceedings of the Lok Sabha will begin after half an hour of the President's address, while the Rajya Sabha proceedings will begin at 2.30 p.m.

The Economic Survey for the year 2021-2022 will be presented in both the Houses of Parliament on Monday itself.

On the second day, on February 1, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Budget in the Lok Sabha at 11 a.m.

The proceedings of the Rajya Sabha will begin one hour after the Budget speech of the Finance Minister in the Lok Sabha. She will also present the Budget in the Rajya Sabha.

From February 2, under the Covid protocol, the proceedings of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will run in two shifts.

It has been decided that the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha will take place between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. After this, the proceedings of the Lok Sabha will start at 4 p.m., which will continue till 9 p.m.

The two-shift proceeding arrangements have been made only for the first phase of the Budget Session, i.e., till February 11.

The session, this time, will take place in two phases. The first phase will start from January 31 and end on February 11 while the second phase will start from March 14 and will continue till April 8.

Both -- the government as well as the opposition -- have made their preparations for this 'crucial' session.

It will be the government's endeavour that the proceedings of both the Houses be conducted smoothly so that the motion of thanks on the President's address can be discussed in detail and the government can inform the citizens, especially the voters of the poll-bound states, about its achievements through the House.

It is likely that the Prime Minister's speech can take place twice, i.e., separately in both the Houses.

On the other hand, the opposition has a plethora of issues, with the help of which they will try to corner the government.

With recent disclosures on Pegasus, the opposition is all set to again raise the issue in both the Houses of Parliament.

Also, with the Assembly elections in five states -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur, around the corner, and under such a scenario the government as well as the opposition parties would try to deliver their messages to the voters.

Under such circumstances there is a huge possibility of an uproar in both the Houses.

The government and the opposition have been in continuous confrontation and due to this Parliament could not function smoothly during the past several proceedings.

The productivity of work in Lok Sabha during the last winter session was only 82 per cent. While the Rajya Sabha's record in terms of business was even worse and was only 48 per cent.

Considering the current scenario, it would be interesting to see whether Parliament would proceed smoothly during this session.