JOIN USThe Modi government will start finalising from Wednesday the agenda for the Budget Session of Parliament, now that the Delhi elections are over.
Top on the agenda will be replacing the six Ordinances it had issued soon after the Winter Session. The Budget Session of Parliament begins on February 23 and will continue till May 8, followed by a month-long recess beginning March 20.
The challenge before the Modi government is to ensure that the Ordinances are replaced by Acts before that date.
The Modi government will have a tight five-day window in the Budget Session to replace the six Ordinances, including one on land laws, which have attracted the wrath of a united Opposition.
The Parliament will have 20 sittings between February 23 and March 20. However, much of the time will be consumed by discussions on Motion of Thanks to the President’s address to the joint sitting, the general and railway budgets, and private members' business. This will leave the government with just four-five days before the recess.
“We keep talking to the Opposition members,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told Deccan Herald when asked whether he had reached out to Opposition parties on the Ordinance issue.
An all-party meeting is scheduled for February 22 to apprise them of the government's agenda for the Session, and seek their views.
According to procedure, an Ordinance has to be replaced by an Act within six weeks of the first day of any Parliament session. The Ordinance is otherwise considered lapsed, and cannot be re-promulgated when Parliament is in session.
Government sources said the Opposition was on board in converting into Acts all the Ordinances, except for the amendments to the land acquisition law, which the Congress turned into an election issue.
The Modi government had opted for the Ordinance route to usher in economic reforms such as increase in Foreign Direct Investment in the insurance sector, amendments to the stringent land acquisition laws and coal block allocations, and allowing e-rickshaws in the national capital. The move was necessitated by the Opposition stalling legislative business in the Rajya Sabha during the Winter Session.