The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs is likely to meet here on Wednesday to take a call on extending the first half of the Budget Session – scheduled to end on March 20 – by few days to push through pending government business .

Indeed, the two Select Committees examining the Coal Bill and the Mines and Minerals Bill are slated to present their reports on Wednesday: if the CCPA’s assessment is that the government can get both passed by Friday, the break will start thereafter, but if it feels it needs a bit more time, it may extend it. Opposition sources, however, told The Hindu that the two Bills will be passed in the first half, as their ranks have been breached by the government.

Another consideration springs from the fact that the government is resigned to its inability to get the Land Bill through by then. This will necessarily require the re-promulgation of the ordinance before April 5, something that can only be done by proroguing the House.

However, if it does that, the Finance Bill, that is usually passed in the second half of the Budget Session, may have to be passed in the first half so that it does not carry over to the next session. That would also require an extension of the first half of the session.

Source: TH