33 sittings for Budget Session; Question Hour back

Parliament’s Budget Session will begin on January 29, with the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha meeting in separate five-hour shifts to ensure physical distancing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The full-fledged session would have 33 sittings with Question Hour, short duration discussions, private members’ business and calling attention motions – aspects that were scrapped in the brief monsoon session in September last year.

The government had also scrapped the Winter Session of Parliament – usually held in November-December – citing the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the national capital.

President Ram Nath Kovind issued the formal summons for convening the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha for the Budget Session.

The President will address both the Houses of Parliament assembled together on January 29, spelling out the Modi government’s agenda for the next year.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on February 1.

The Rajya Sabha will have sittings from 9 am to 2 pm, and the Lok Sabha will sit from 4 pm till 9 pm.

The Opposition had hit out at the Modi government for scrapping the Question Hour and private members’ business during the monsoon session.

The Parliament would break for a three-week recess on February 15 and assemble again for the second part of the Budget Session on March 8. The session is expected to conclude on April 8.

Last year, the Budget Session had to be cut short due to the Covid-19 pandemic as the country went into a lockdown to arrest the spread of the coronavirus.

In 2020, Parliament was in session for 33 days – 23 during the Budget Session and 10 days during the monsoon session – the least number of sittings per year in Independent India. The last time Parliament met for less than 50 days a year was in 2008 when it was in session for 46 days.