Centre to finalise priority areas ahead of Budget session

As it prepares to unveil its agenda during the first Budget session of the 15th Lok Sabha, the new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government will hold a series of strategy meetings to finalise the priority areas.

Union Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sharad Pawar will hold a meeting of the state food ministers on July 4 and 5 to discuss the proposed Food Security Act of the central government.

The Congress-led UPA government wants to introduce the Food Security Act to provide subsidised rice or wheat at Rs 3 per kilogram to all families below the poverty line (BPL). After making it an election pledge of the Congress, the government has also emphasised on this issue in President Pratibha Patil’s speech last week.

According to the initial estimates of the food and civil supplies ministry, the scheme may cost Rs 70,000 crore.

Party sources said apart from the Railway and General Budget, the government wanted to initiate some key legislation during the session to send a political message to voters. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has also planned to hold a meeting of the secretaries of different ministries to know each ministry’s priority agenda.

“I will meet the departmental secretaries shortly to discuss what Bills different ministries like to pursue immediately. We have to set the government’s agenda accordingly,” Bansal said today.

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has set a 100-day target for different ministries to highlight the agenda of the government, some ministries are expected to move key legislations or policies. But Bansal claims it’s still not clear if the LIC Bill, PFRDA Bill or banking reforms will be a part of the government’s priority agenda. “You have to ask this question to the Finance Minister,” he said when asked about the fate of these key Bills.

Anticipating a heavy rush of different ministries to push their agenda, the UPA government has already sounded the Opposition about extending the Budget session till the second week of August.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Leader of the Opposition Lal Krishna Advani at the Speaker’s chamber that the government might continue the Budget session till mid-August, if the Opposition allows the government to function in Parliament.