All-party meeting held ahead of Budget session in Parliament

An all-party meeting has commenced at the Parliament Annexe building in New Delhi ahead of the Budget session of the Parliament.

The meeting is chaired by Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Kiren Rijiju, JP Nadda, Arjun Ram Meghwal and L Murugan.

Leaders from the different political parties, including Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, K Suresh and Gaurav Gogoi and TMC MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O'Brien are present in this meeting.

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Along with them, RSP MP NK Premachandran, BJD MP Sasmit Patra, DMK MP TR Baalu, SP MP Ram Gopal Yadav, JMM MP Mahua Maji and several other MPs are present in the meeting.

Before the commencement of the meeting, RSP MP NK Premachandran said that this is a routine meeting which is conducted before the parliamentary session, adding that the opposition is ready to have a smooth functioning of the Parliament.

"The budget session starts tomorrow, so it is the usual practice of having an all-party meeting...The opposition is ready to have a smooth functioning of the Parliament if the government cooperates. But the government has to take the initiative for this...We are planning to raise so many issues including the economic slowdown, price rise, unemployment..." Premachandran told ANI.

The budget session of Parliament will begin on January 31 and, according to schedule, will end on April 4. The budget will be presented on February 1.

President Droupadi Murmu will address the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on January 31. Parliament will have an inter-session break from February 14, and the two Houses will resume their sittings on March 10.

On Monday, the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Kiren Rijiju announced that the government has called an all-party meeting on January 30.

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On the upcoming Budget session of Parliament, Rijiju told ANI, "On 31st January, the Budget session of Parliament will start. Before it, on 30th January, we have called an all-party meeting."