Ensure success of Budget Session, PM Modi urges political leaders at all-party meet

The Budget Session will open with the customary address of the President to a joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged political leaders to ensure that the Budget Session is a success.

Addressing the media after an all-party meet, Union Minister Ananth Kumar quoted the PM as saying, "Prime Minister urged political leaders to ensure the success of Budget Session. The PM said that the Budget Session is very important.

He added, "the government takes very sincerely the suggestions given to it by Opposition during the discussion in the all-party meeting."

Kumar further said, "Government will do everything to ensure passage of triple talaq bill in Budget Session. We will talk to parties for consensus. The way they have passed GST unanimously, we request them to pass this too unanimously."

On the other hand, Harivansh Narayan Singh of JD(U) said, "We discussed grave issues of the country. JD(U) discussed the pending issues from education and other sectors."

Meanwhile, Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav of RJD said, "Unemployment is rising. Peace and harmony are being driven out and violence being spread. Nation's unity is in danger. From Koregaon to Nandangaon to Buxar, Dalits are being oppressed. We raised these issues. We will also raise issues of farmers suicide," as per ANI.

The Budget Session will open on January 29, 2018, with the customary address of President Ram Nath Kovind to a joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Following the address by the President, the economic survey will be tabled in the two Houses.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the current BJP-led NDA regime's last full-fledged budget on February 1, 2018. The first spell of the session will end on February 9. Parliament will meet again between March 5 and April 6, 2018.

The budget is likely to carry a strong political message with an emphasis on farmers and the poor and an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The President's address, which projects the government's points of view, is likely to focus on the Centre's efforts at boosting economic and farm growth, creating employment and empowering the poor and other weaker sections of society, PTI reported.

Besides the triple talaq legislation, which criminalises instant talaq by Muslim men, the government is also likely to make a pitch for the passage of the OBC bill, which seeks to give a constitutional status to the OBC commission.

The Lok Sabha had passed the bill seeking imprisonment for Muslim men convicted of practising instant triple talaq, but a united Opposition had stalled it in the Rajya Sabha, where the NDA lacks a majority.

(With Agency inputs)