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Stormy Budget session begins today

P K Chakravarty in New Delhi

The Budget session of Parliament will commence today with President K R Narayanan's address to the members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in the historic central hall.

While the President would outline the policies and programmes to be followed by the government in the coming financial year and its achievements in the current year, the Opposition parties are finalising a strategy to grill the government for its ''failure on the economic front'', price hike of wheat, rice and sugar provided to the people through the public distribution system.

They are to launch a scathing attack on the government for the imposition of President's rule in Bihar.

All the Opposition parties are likely to take a common stand on the issue and the recent attacks on minorities. Since the Congress, which is the major Opposition in Parliament is yet to announce its stand on central rule in Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government was going through anxious moments. The party's only consolation is that its allies are standing by it on the issue.

The Left parties and its allies are concerned over the government's move to allow the private sector in the insurance business and divesting the shares of some public sector undertakings. They have decided to take up with the government the issue of privatisation of profitable PSUs.

UNI

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