Food served in Parliament canteens for MPs and others will become costlier as a subsidy given for it has been stopped, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said on Tuesday. While the speaker did not specify what the financial implications of the move will be, sources said that the Lok Sabha Secretariat can expect to save more than Rs 8 crore every year, with the subsidy coming to an end
Talking to reporters about preparations for the next Parliament session, which will begin on January 29, Birla also said the Parliament canteens will now be run by ITDC in place of Northern Railways.
The discussion on the subsidy for the Parliament canteens began early in December, with floor leaders from several parties suggesting that the subsidised food must be served at market price.
Birla said all Members of Parliament will be requested to undergo the COVID-19 test before the start of the Budget session.
While Rajya Sabha will sit from 9 am to 2 pm, Lok Sabha will function in the second half from 4-8 pm. The Question Hour will be allowed during the session for an already fixed time of one hour.
The Union Budget, which is structured around the overall theme of ‘Ease of Living’, will be presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February1, 2021. Reports say that the traditional Halwa ceremony has been done away with by the Finance Ministry, and that the Budget presentation will be a paperless affair. These changes are reportedly being made in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, India had slipped into a technical recession after it posted two successive quarters of decline. Ahead of the presentation, the Finance Minister held a pre-Budget discussion with the Finance Ministers of all the states and union territories via video conferencing.