Second leg of Budget session begins today, Govt aims to pass pending bills

The second leg of the Budget session of Parliament will begin today and it will continue till April 6.

While the focus of the second part of the Budget Session will be on demand for grants and passage of the Union Budget.

As per the records, about 26 Bills are currently pending in the Rajya Sabha and close to 9 in the Lok Sabha for passage.

Two Bills - The Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2022 were referred to a Joint Committee by the government last Winter Session and they are currently being examined by the panel.

It is known through sources that the CP Joshi-led panel discussing the Multi-State Cooperative Bill will be presenting its report in Parliament in the upcoming session. This panel has completed its discussion on the Bill and is likely to adopt its draft report today.

The government will also list The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which was scrutinised by a Joint Committee of Parliament.

It is also known through the sources that the government may bring the keenly awaited Personal Data Protection Bill in the upcoming session. This Bill is likely to be cleared by the Union Cabinet soon.

Amongst the Bills pending in the Rajya Sabha, three Bills have already been passed by Lok Sabha including The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2019, The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022 and The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Fifth Amendment) Bill, 2022.

Earlier on March 13, Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar held a meeting with the MPs of nine parties on the eve of the resumption of the second half of the Budget Session of the Parliament and sought methods to curb disruption in the functioning of the House, sources said.

Among those leaders who were present at the meeting at Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas in the national capital were Leader of the House Piyush Goyal, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, DMK MP M Shanmugam, AAP MP Sanjay Singh, Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav, BRS MP K Keshava Rao, TDP MP K Ravindra Kumar, JD(U) Ram Nath Thakur, Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) Sanjay Raut.