Railway Budget July 8: Opposition to protest fare hike
The Budget Session of Parliament will begin on July 7 and will end on August 14. The first General Budget of the Narendra Modi government will be presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley on July 10, while Sadananda Gowda will unveil its Railway Budget on July 8. The Economic Survey will be released on July 9.
The decision on the dates for the session was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs that was chaired by home minister Rajnath Singh. The meeting was held in parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu’s room in Parliament House.
Sources said the CCPA decided that bills to replace ordinances, including the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities (Amendment) Ordinance, the one on the Polavaram project, the TRAI Act (Amendment) Ordinance and the one on Sebi, will be brought on a priority basis for consideration in the session.
The ordinances have to be converted into bills by the third week of July. The session lasting over a month will have a total of 28 sittings.
The vote-on-account budget approved by the previous Parliament lapses on July 31, and a new Budget has to be in place before that date.
The Opposition is likely to rake up the issue of hike in railway passenger fares and freight rates ahead of the presentation of the Railway Budget.
Mr Naidu had recently said the election of the deputy speaker will take place during the Budget Session. Even Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has said she will take a decision on the issue of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha before the Budget Session.
The Congress, which lacks the requisite numbers, is seeking the post claiming that it is the single largest party in the Opposition benches and that its pre-poll alliance — UPA — has together more than the adequate numbers to claim the post.