The government on Monday held an all-party meeting on the eve of the Budget Session of Parliament and sought the Opposition’s cooperation for smooth conduct of proceedings, which include a discussion on President Droupadi Murmu’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament and the Union Budget-2023-24.
The President will address a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament tomorrow morning. It will be followed by the presentation of the Economic Survey for 2022-23 later in the day.
The Union Budget 2023-24 will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on 1st February. Later, the Budget will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha.
Talking to newspersons after the all-party meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said the government is ready to discuss all issues as decided by the Business Advisory Committees of the two Houses.
“Thirty-seven leaders from 27 parties participated in the all-party meeting today. Today’s meeting went well. I seek the cooperation of the opposition to run the House well. We are ready to discuss all issues,” he said.
Several parties wanted discussion on matters regarding Chinese intrusion but the Government maintained issues concerning the security of the country can’t be discussed.
The opposition parties said they would raise the issue of the recent stock market matter concerning Adani Group stocks. They urged the Government to hold a discussion on the matter as it concerned the economy of the country, and therefore people at large.
BJD MP Sasmit Patra said after the meeting “Women’s Reservation Bill is going to be a priority for BJD in this session. We’ve been pushing for the passage of the Bill. We’ll also build consensus with like-minded parties to put pressure on the Government to ensure that the Bill is passed.”
Deputy Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal; and Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal and V Muraleedharan were among those present for the meeting in Parliament House.
Congress leaders were absent from the meeting. According to government sources, both Mallikarjun Kharge of the Rajya Sabha and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Lok Sabha, were held up in Srinagar due to the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra. Nationalist Congress President (NCP) president Sharad Pawar was present.
All top leaders from many other Opposition parties including DMK leader T R Baalu, TMC leaders, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, TRS leaders K Keshava Rao and Nama Nageswara Rao were present.
Among other leaders, Farooq Abdullah from the National Conference, Professor Manoj Jha from the RJD and Ram Nath Thakur of JD (U) were also present, along with Vijayasai Reddy from the YSR Congress, and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) was represented by Priyanka Chaturvedi.
From Thursday onwards, both Houses will have a discussion on the “Motion Of Thanks to the President Address” after which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reply in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
The first part of the Budget Session will continue till 13 February. The second part of the Budget Session will resume after a recess on 13 March and go on till 6 April. A discussion will take place on the Demands For Grants of various ministries and the Union Budget will be passed. Other legislative businesses will also be taken up by the government during this period.
