Budget Session of Parliament to be held from January 31 to April 6

The Budget Session of Parliament will start on January 31 and conclude on April 6 with a month-long break in between, Union Minister Prahlad Joshi announced on Friday.

Joshi said that there will be a total of 27 sittings during the session. The Parliament will be on a break between February 14 and March 12, during which Parliamentary Standing Committees will examine the demands for grants and make reports on various ministries and departments, Joshi wrote in a tweet.

The session will start with an address by President Droupadi Murmu to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, reported NDTV. This will be President Murmu’s first address to the two Houses since her appointment in August.

As per convention, the Union Budget for the financial year 2023-’24 will be tabled on February 1 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

On December 23, the Winter Session of Parliament ended nearly a week ahead of schedule. It was originally scheduled to end on December 29.

During the session, Opposition parties repeatedly held protests demanding a discussion in Parliament on the border dispute between India and China after it emerged that clashes broke out between troops of the two countries at the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 9.

The clash was the first between the soldiers of the two countries since the clash between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh in June 2020. The Galwan incident had led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers while China said it suffered four casualties.

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, however, had said that it is not good to rake up such sensitive issues in Parliament. He had also said that it was a convention to not discuss them in the House.

A controversy had also erupted over Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s comments about the role of the Bharatiya Janata Party during India’s freedom movement.