Efforts on to ensure a smooth session, says govt
Minister of state for parliamentary affairs V. Narayanaswamy on Thursday expressed confidence that the forthcoming Budget Session will be smooth. The minister added that the Budget Session would begin on the 21st of the next month. Railway Budget, according to him, will be presented on the February 25 and the General Budget will be presented on the February 28 in the Lower House.
He was interacting with journalists after taking over as the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office. “All efforts to ensure the smooth functioning of the Budget Session are being taken by both the Prime Minister and Mr Pranab Mukherjee,” said Mr Narayanaswamy. He added, “The Lok Sabha Speaker too had done her bit to ease the stalemate in Parliament.”
The last Winter Session of Parliament got washed out due to the Opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Probe(JPC) into the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
Earlier, Mr Narayanaswamy — the first person from the south to take over as minister of state in the Prime Minister’s office — listed out the priorities of his new assignment. He said, “I have been tasked to bring about coordination between my party and our allies.” He added, “All corruption cases involving top bureaucrats will be expedited by creating separate fast-track courts for the purpose. Efforts would be made to dispense with the discretionary powers of ministers especially those related to land.” Mr Narayanswamy promised to ensure transparency in administration as also in land acquisition. On administrative reforms, he said, “Training would be imparted to officers on the techniques of modern management.” The minister added that the decision making stages will be reduced from the current five phases to three phases as part of an administrative overhaul.
It is pertinent to note that the Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi had declared in the last concluded party plenary that there would soon be a series of administrative reforms.
Post new comment