The Hindu : National : Tough job for Government as Budget session begins

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Friday, Feb 25, 2005

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National

Tough job for Government as Budget session begins

By K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI, FEB. 24. The Budget session of Parliament begins tomorrow. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government is facing the difficult task of managing contradictions that arise primarily due to differences with the supporting Left parties. The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, whose Government was recently dismissed in Goa, will raise the issue. The results of the Assembly elections in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana will be available on Sunday and the emerging political equations will echo in the debates.

The session will start with the customary address by the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, to a joint session of Parliament and the presentation of the Economic Survey. The Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, will present the Railway Budget on Saturday while the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, will unveil the UPA Government's first-ever full Budget on Monday.

The session will have two phases — during the first, till March 24, Parliament will discuss and adopt the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address, the Railway and the Union Budgets and pass the vote-on-account. Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will recess between March 25 and April 17 when the Standing Committees will examine the demands for grants of various Ministries.

The Government intends to introduce three Bills, one each to replace ordinances including the Patents Amendment; the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority; and the Central Excise Laws (Amendment and Validation), according to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Mr. Azad told a press conference that he hoped that the Government would have the cooperation of the Opposition, its allies and the Left parties in transacting business. The leaders of various political parties had agreed to spend an extra hour each day to clear official business. The session, he said, could be extended after May 13 subject to the exigencies.

The Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, too, told correspondents at a function here today that the Members had agreed to sit up to 7 p.m. every day. ``This shows their anxiety [to transact business],'' he said.

Mr. Chatterjee held separate meetings with the BJP and Congress leaders to ensure a smooth conduct of the proceedings and plans to have an all-party meeting tomorrow. Barring the last winter session, the first two sessions of the 14th Lok Sabha have witnessed repeated adjournments and a standoff between the Government and the Opposition.

The BJP leadership has told the Speaker that the party is willing to cooperate provided the Government accommodates its concerns. Besides Goa, the BJP plans to raise the devastation caused by the tsunami, India-Pakistan relations especially in the wake of recent visit of the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, to Islamabad and the announcement of the Srinagar-Muzaffarbad bus service.

The Government could expect a hard time from its friends too.

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