No legislative business during first part of Budget session, says govt

The government has told a virtual meeting of Rajya Sabha leaders that it will not take up any legislative business during the first part of the Budget session due to time restraint.

The government on Monday said that it will not take up any legislative business in Rajya Sabha during the first part of the Budget session.

Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal said this during a virtual meeting called by House Chairman and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to discuss forthcoming session.

Chairman Naidu told the House leaders that the first part of the Budget session till February 11 will have only 23 hours for business other than Zero Hour, Question Hour and Private Members’ Business. He further said that Discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to Members of both the Houses today [Monday] and discussion on Union Budget to be presented on Tuesday will get priority during the first part of the session.

He informed the leaders that these two major items of business took a total time of over 26 hours during the last Budget session and 23 hours time is available for the same in the first part of this Budget session.

To this, Piyush Goyal said that the government is not planning to take up any legislative proposals during the first part of this session.

Many of the leaders echoed the same sense of priorities for the first part of this Budget session and called for a disruption free Budget session. BJD Leader Prasanna Acharya urged all parties and members of respective parties not to disrupt Zero Hour and Question Hour since Chairman Naidu has been endeavouring to give opportunities to as many Members as possible there by enabling wider participation of Members of Rajya Sabha. Disruptions deny a large number of Members such opportunities of participation, he said.

During the virtual meet, Chairman Naidu said that the both Houses lose one hour per sitting due to staggered sitting, in place due to Covid-19.