The second part of the Budget Session 2021 began today. Rajya Sabha adjourned repeatedly amidst demands for discussion on rising fuel prices, before adjourning to meet at 11 AM tomorrow.
Marking the occasion of International Women's Day, several MPs in Rajya Sabha demanded a Bill for reservation for women in Parliament. Women's reservation bills have been introduced four times before, but all of them lapsed with the dissolution of Lok Sabha. Our Twitter thread takes a look at women’s representation in legislatures and the impossibility of reservation in Rajya Sabha.
Lok Sabha adjourned until 7 PM. A calling attention motion to discuss women’s empowerment and consideration of two bills is listed on the agenda.
Lok Sabha is scheduled to discuss the Demand for Grants for Railways this week, while Rajya Sabha will tentatively take up the working of the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
Both Houses of Parliament will switch back to the old timings of 11AM to 6PM for the remainder of this session.
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Numbers to note |
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Rs 230 crore In 2020-21, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change was allocated Rs 3,100 crore at the Budget stage. This decreased by Rs 1,085 crore (35%) at the revised estimates stage. This may be due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a change in spending priorities of the government over the year. For 2021-22, the Ministry has been allocated Rs. 2,870 crore which is Rs 230 crore less than BE 2020-21. In our analysis, we note a 2% to 14% underutilization of the Ministry’s budget in the last three years (Table 3 in the report). The Ministry too acknowledged this underspending in a Parliament Question today. |