The first Budget session of the 18th Lok Sabha concluded on Friday, with the government thanking the presiding officers of the two Houses for ensuring that not a single day of proceedings was washed out.
During the session, which began on July 22, the government introduced 11 bills, including four in the Lok Sabha on Friday and the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, on Thursday. The Budget session saw the tabling of the Economic Survey and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presenting the Budget for FY 2024-25. Parliament passed three bills: the Appropriation Bill, the Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, and the Finance Bill. The Lok Sabha also passed the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the joint committee of Parliament will submit its report on the Waqf Amendment Bill in the last week of the Winter Session. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha also announced the names of 21 and 10 of their members, respectively, nominated to the joint panel.
According to the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, the Lok Sabha devoted 27 hours and 19 minutes to discussing the Union Budget against the allotted 20 hours, while the Rajya Sabha discussed it for 22 hours and 40 minutes.
The session ended on a fractious note with the INDIA bloc criticising Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar for the manner in which he presided over the proceedings. Asked about the arguments involving opposition members and Dhankhar, and the move by some parties to pass a resolution against him, Rijiju said he cannot comment on a matter involving the chair, but added that matters should not come to a stage where it will amount to challenging the chair’s authority.
In the Rajya Sabha, Dhankhar deplored the conduct of the opposition party members, saying Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge was determined to have his way at the cost of the Constitution. The Upper House, which was adjourned sine die ahead of schedule in the afternoon, witnessed sloganeering and heated exchanges earlier in the day, with the opposition members walking out after Dhankhar struck down their demand for an apology from Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ghanshyam Tiwari for purportedly insulting Kharge last week. The Chairman also had a heated exchange with Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan, who objected to Dhankhar’s “tone” during the Question Hour.
Later, Congress’s Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X that he submitted four notices for moving a privilege motion against the BJP leaders, including two against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for posting on X the expunged remarks of his colleague Anurag Thakur in the Lok Sabha. Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien posted on X data to point out that it was the eleventh occasion since the Budget Session in March-April 2020 that the government had cut short a session. The Budget session in 2020 was adjourned on March 23 instead of the scheduled end on April 3 because of the outbreak of the pandemic. While three of these 11 sessions in question were curtailed because of the pandemic, the rest were cut short by a day.
First Published: Aug 09 2024 | 10:37 PM IST
