Govt gears up for Budget Day

NEW DELHI, June 9: The government is gearing up for July 17, the day the Budget is voted on in Parliament. During the majority test, the min...

NEW DELHI, June 9: The government is gearing up for July 17, the day the Budget is voted on in Parliament. During the majority test, the minority Vajpayee government had scraped through thanks to the support of the 12-MP Telugu Desam Party.

A meeting of leaders of all parties was convened today by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana to discuss the business to be taken up in the Lok Sabha after the inter-session break.

The government is keen to take up three important Bills – Prasar Bharati, Lok Pal and Women’s Reservation – and legislation to accord full statehood to Uttaranchal, Vananchal, Chhattisgarh and Delhi. The Bills are under “active process”, Khurana said.

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The Lok Pal Bill has been referred to a group of ministers, while the draft Bill on the new states has been circulated to different ministries. On Prasar Bharati, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj is to hold discussions with Leader of the Opposition Sharad Pawar.

Only the ministries of External Affairs, Homeand Agriculture will be taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha. If time permits, the demands for grants of the Defence Ministry will be taken up, Khurana said.

This was unanimously agreed upon at the meeting, which was attended by 23 leaders, including Home Minister L K Advani (BJP) Defence Minister George Fernandes (Samata), Food Minister S S Barnala (Akali Dal), Petroleum Minister V Ramamurthy (TRC), Coal Minister Dilip Ray (BJD), Leader of the Opposition Sharad Pawar (Congress), Somnath Chatterjee (CPM), T R Balu (DMK), Yerran Naidu (TDP) and Prof S Soz (NC).

Bengaluru family feared dead in Kurnool bus fire

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A family of four from Andhra Pradesh, residing in Bengaluru, are suspected to be among the 20 people reported dead in a fire that gutted a Hyderabad-Bengaluru bus near Kurnool in the early hours of Friday.

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