The government has listed five new Bills, apart from the Finance Bill, for introduction in the Budget Session of Parliament scheduled to begin on Monday (July 22). The Session, which is to continue till August 12, will have 16 sittings. It will see the tabling of the Economic Survey on Monday and the presentation of the Union Budget on Tuesday.
The government has called the customary pre-Session meeting of the floor leaders of all political parties on Sunday. As evident from the Special Session of the new Lok Sabha, the Opposition INDIA bloc is set to be more combative in the Budget Session, given its improved strength in the Lower House.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s numbers have declined in the Rajya Sabha too after the retirement of four BJP MPs earlier this month. The four were nominated MPs, who had formally allied with the BJP.
The 245-member Upper House has 19 vacancies, and the halfway mark is 113. The NDA has 101 MPs, including the BJP’s 86, and is, therefore, short of the majority mark.
The NDA could, as it did during the tenure of the 17th Lok Sabha, rely on non-aligned regional parties, such as the YSRCP (11 MPs), AIADMK (4) and others. However, at least one of these non-aligned parties, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD, with its nine MPs, supported the Opposition INDIA bloc on some of the issues during the Special Session.
The BJP, however, is set to gain at least half a dozen of the 11 vacancies for which elections are due. These vacancies have arisen as RS MPs were elected to the LS. Other than these, four vacancies are in the nominated category and four are from Jammu and Kashmir.
Of the five new Bills that the government has proposed to introduce in the Budget Session, the Bhartiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024, will replace the Aircraft Act, 1934. According to the government, the Bill is intended to address the ambiguity in the existing law and provide enabling provisions for manufacturing in the aviation sector to support the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiatives.
The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill aims to bring more clarity and convergence in the roles of different organisations working in the field of disaster management, a Lok Sabha bulletin issued on Thursday evening said.
Other Bills listed for introduction and passage during the Session are the Boilers Bill to replace the pre-Independence era law, the Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill and the Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill.
First Published: Jul 19 2024 | 8:16 PM IST
