Opp to raise issue in wake of fresh expose in snooping issue
The Budget Session of Parliament beginning Monday with the Presidential Address is likely to be a stormy one in the wake of the fresh expose in the Pegasus snooping issue.
The last two Parliament sessions - Monsoon and Winter- witnessed disruptions and curtailment of the proceedings of the House over ‘snoopgate.’
Leader of the Congress Party in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chaudhury, will move a Privilege Motion against the Union Minister of Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw for allegedly misleading the Parliament by his statement in the Monsoon Session that the Government has nothing to do with the Pegasus row. The Congress and other Opposition parties like the TMC, the Shiv Sena, the RJD and Left parties are likely to raise the Pegasus issues in both the House from day one, seeking immediate clarification from the Government.
While an all-party meeting is scheduled to be chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla before the House meets, the Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, too, has convened a virtual meeting of party leaders in the evening.
Birla and Naidu met on Sunday and reviewed the preparations with top officials of the Parliament. Naidu has been in isolation after testing positive for Covid last week, whereas several Parliament officials, too, were quarantined after testing positive.
Both the presiding officers expressed optimism that all political parties would engage in constructive debates and contribute to a productive Budget Session. Birla has convened a Business Advisory Committee meeting on Monday afternoon.
Both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will sit one hour less per session of the total 27 sessions due to staggered sitting arrangements in the wake of a fresh spate of the Corona pandemic.
The discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address and the General Budget are the major items of business for the first part of the session.
On the first day on Monday, President Ram Nath Kovind will address members of both Houses and on the second day, the Union Budget for 2022-23 will be presented in the Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will meet at separate times of the day for five hours each to ensure Covid distancing norms. The Lok Sabha will meet at 11 am on February 1 for the presentation of the Union Budget, and it will meet from 4 pm to 9 pm from February 2 to February 11, when the first part of the session concludes. The Rajya Sabha will meet from 9 am to 3 pm.
During sittings of the Lower House of Parliament, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha chambers and their galleries will be used for sitting of members in view of the pandemic, a Lok Sabha bulletin said.
The first part of the Budget Session will have 10 sittings between January 31 and February 11, while 19 sittings are scheduled for the second part between March 14 and April 8.
The Rajya Sabha will have Zero Hour reduced by half to 30 minutes per day with a total time of 13 hours 30 minutes for raising issues of public importance besides laying of papers and reports during 27 sittings.
This Budget Session is the sixth to be held since the outbreak of the pandemic in January 2020.
Naidu has called a virtual meeting of leaders of parties and groups at 5 pm on Monday to discuss the agenda for this Budget Session.
A total of 135 hours of sitting time is available for Rajya Sabha for transacting various items of business during the 27 sittings scheduled during February 2- April 8, 2022, at the rate of 5 hours per day.
Of this, the first part of the session with 40 hours accounts for about 30 per cent of the total scheduled sitting time while the second part with 95 hours accounts for about per cent.
The time share of Question Hour will be 27 hours. A total of 15 hours time is scheduled for Private Members’ Business on six days during the session.
During the first week of second part of the session, Private Members’ Bills will be taken up on Thursday as Friday being a holiday. This leaves only 79 hours 30 minutes for considering and passing Bills to be proposed by the Government besides discussing issues of immediate public concern under Calling Attention Notices and as Short Duration Discussions.
