The next session of Parliament will start on February 21 with the President addressing a joint session of both the Houses of Parliament and the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present the Union Budget on February 28, as is customary.
The dates for the seventh session of the 15th Lok Sabha were formally notified by the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Monday.
The two month-long session is expected to conclude on April 21 with a nearly three-week recess from March 16 to April 4 to enable parliamentary standing committees to discuss in detail the demands for grants of various ministries. In consultation with the Opposition it will be later decided which ministries will be discussed by Parliament.
But the major question is whether the Budget session will go the way of the non-functional winter session or will function smoothly.
From all sides of the political spectrum statements have come in favour of a smooth session. Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee has called a meeting of the Opposition party leaders over lunch on February 8 to discuss the impasse over the Opposition demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe on the 2G spectrum allocation affair.
