The dates for the budget session of Parliament were finalised on Thursday, though some apprehensions persist that this session may meet the fate of the non-functional winter session.
After a meeting of the Cabinet Committee for Parliamentary Affairs, chaired by Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.K. Bansal indicated that the budget session would start on February 21 with the President's address to a joint sitting of the two Houses. ; the Union budget would be presented on February 28; and the first part of the session would end on March 16. After the recess, the session would resume on April 4 and end on April 21.
Among the others present were Trinamool Congress Party chief Mamata Banerjee, Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, Law Minister Veerappa Moily and Overseas Indian Affairs and Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi. The DMK was represented by Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran.
A question mark still hangs over the fate of the budget session with Opposition parties not giving up their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G spectrum allocation that paralysed the winter session, as the government was equally steadfast in refusing to give in, pointing to the fact of the Public Accounts Committee scrutinising the CAG report.
Across the political spectrum, there is the view that at any cost the budget session must not be allowed to go the way of the winter session as it would be too costly for the country. While some senior BJP leaders have also said this in private, pointing out the CBI is doing its work under the supervision of the Supreme Court, the PAC is looking at the CAG report, allotted licences are bring scrutinised and no big purpose will be served by appointing a JPC, there are some Congressmen too, who feel that it would have been better to concede the unfair Opposition demand rather than allow Parliament to become a casualty.
A suggestion has also come from the former Secretary-General of the Lok Sabha, P.D.T. Achary, that even at this late stage, the issue could be resolved if the government agreed to arm the PAC with some of the powers of the JPC. This could be done by adopting a simple resolution in the House, he said. This would be a face-saving formula for the Opposition as well as the government: the JPC demand would not have been conceded, yet the PAC would be virtually converted into a JPC.
