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A meeting of Rajya Sabha floor leaders, chaired by Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, would take place at 5 PM on January 31.
This meeting will take place virtually given the COVID spread and that the Vice President of India himself is recovering from a bout of Covid, sources said. The customary meeting will in a way set the tone for the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament where the opposition leaders are expected to corner the government on several key issues. The last couple of sessions have been stormy with the opposition refusing to allow the Houses to function demanding responses from the government on various issues including Pegasus snooping controversy, Central farm laws, inflation and unemployment. The last Winter Session of Parliament was a complete washout in the Upper House with the suspension of 12 opposition MPs for the entire part of the session. While the government through its floor leaders, including the Leader of the House Piyush Goyal, constantly asked the Opposition leaders to apologise to the Chairman for their unruly behaviour in the Monsoon Session which led to the suspension. A united opposition refused to apologise and the members of Parliament throughout the entire Winter Session sat in protest at the Gandhi statue in the Parliament. The Budget Session of Parliament will get underway on January 31 with the joint address of both Houses by President Ram Nath Kovind and on that day the economic survey is also scheduled to be tabled. The Union Budget will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. The first part of the Budget Session will be from January 31 till February 11 and then the second part of the Budget Session will resume again on March 14 till April 8. (ANI)
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