Parliament Budget Session begins with President Ramnath Kovind's speech

The budget sessions of Parliament will begin from today. Against this backdrop, as the centre is focussing on the budget, the opposition parties have stated they want the discussion on the Pegasus, farmers protests and other issues. However, prior to the meetings, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu will hold separate meetings with opposition leaders.

It is interesting to note that the budget meetings were held at a time when Assembly elections were being held in five states of the country. Economic and political experts are of the opinion that the budget meetings are likely to have an impact on the respective state elections.

Meanwhile, president Ramnath Kovind on Monday will jointly address the members of parliament ahead of parliament sessions. Kovind's term as President is coming to an end next July. With this, these meetings are the last meetings of the Parliament where he will address as the President. After the President's speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will introduce the Union Budget for Economic Survey 2021–22 on Tuesday (February 1).

The debate on the topic of thanking the President for his speech will begin on Wednesday. This discussion will take about 4 days. The Prime Minister will respond to this debate on February 7. The first phase budget meetings will be held from January 31 to February 11. The second phase of meetings will be held from March 14 to April 8.

The president wished the Indians a happy independence and Amrit Mahotsav. He said that the Indian war against the Coronavirus was inspiring and commendable.