PRESS RELEASE

The Budget Session of Parliament shall commence on 17^th February, 2003 and will end on 9^th May, 2003 with a total of 39 sittings. The Parliament is scheduled to be in recess from 14^th March to 6^th April. During the 1^st Part of the Budget Session there will be a total of 19 sittings and in the second part which will commence from 7^th April there will be 20 sittings.

The Session will mainly be devoted to financial Business relating to Railway and General Budget for 2003-2004. The other important business to be transacted during the Session will be Motion of Thanks on President’s Address. Legislative Business including on e Ordinance namely the Customs Tariff (Amendment) Ordinance, 2003 (1 of 2003, promulgated on 20.1.2003) and Non- Legislative Business.

To finalise the Government Business for Budget Session, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Health and Family Welfare, Smt. Sushma Swaraj held a meeting with Secretaries/Senior Officers of concerned Ministries on 10.2.2003 in which various items of Business were categorized into three categories depending upon their readiness, importance and priority.

The Railway Budget will be presented in the Lok Sabha on the 24^th February, 2003 immediately after question hour, and the General Budget shall be presented in the Lok Sabha on the 28^th February, 2003 at 11.00 AM. The discussion on the railway budget is slated to commence on 26^th February and the discussion on the general budget is likely to commence on 4^th March, 2003.

The new bills proposed to be introduced in the budget session of the Parliament include the following:- The Indian council of World Affairs (Amendment) Bill, 2003, the Finance Bill, 2003, the Customs Tariff (Amendment) Bill, 2003 (Ordinance), the Central Excise Amendment Bill, 2003, the Assam Rifles Act, 1941 (Repeal) Bill, 2003, the Prevention of insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2003, the Unorganised Sector Workers Bill, 2003, the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2003, the Administrative Tribunals (Amendment) Bill, 2003, the Carriers (Repeal) Bill, 2003, the National Commission on Statistics Bill, 2003, the Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Bill, 2003, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Amendment) Bill, 2003 the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) (Union Territories) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2003, the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Amendment) Bill, 2003