Parliament Budget Session highlights: Both Houses adjourned; Budget Session to reconvene on April 16

Lok Sabha adjourns for the day. The House will meet again on April 16, 2026, at 11 a.m. 

The Budget Session of Parliament will reconvene on April 16 after a brief recess to pass bills to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816, so that the women’s reservation law can be implemented at the earliest. 

According to the government calender, the House was scheduled to adjourn sine die (for an indefinite period).

Lok Sabha debates the Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Bill. Minister of State Nityanand Rai responds to the debate. 

Mr. Rai says this Bill would strengthen the security system of the country. 

The Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. 

Rajya Sabha adjourns for the day. The House will reconvene on April 16, Thursday at 11 a.m. 

The Parliament is expected to debate amendments to the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, popularly known as the Women’s Reservation Act 2023, with an aim to speed up its implementation. 

Jan Vishwas Bill proposed to amend 79 central acts administered by 23 Ministries. 

A total of 784 provisions are being proposed to be amended, of which 717 provisions are being de-criminalised to foster ease of doing business, and 67 provisions are proposed to be amended to facilitate ease of living. 

The Bill also seeks to rationalise more than 1,000 offences, removing outdated and redundant provisions, thereby improving the overall regulatory environment. 

Replying to the debate on the Bill, Mr. Goyal says it would help people and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), sectors of animal husbandry, among others. 

The Bill seeks to correct all the wrongs that the Bill entailed previously, Mr. Goyal says. The penalties included for various offences in the Bill were unfair, and we have sought to correct it by increasing them wherever necessary, he adds. 

Piyush Goyal says that the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026, helps in the ease of doing business and ease of living by decriminalising minor offences. “It proposes to amend 79 central Acts, administered by 23 Ministries,” he said.

A total of 784 provisions are being proposed to be amended under the bill, of which 717 are getting decriminalised to foster ease of doing business and 67 are proposed to be changed to facilitate ease of living. 

The Bill also seeks to rationalise more than 1,000 offences, removing outdated and redundant provisions, thereby improving the overall regulatory environment. 

Lok Sabha continues to debate CAPF Bill, even as various MPs, across political parties speak on it. 

Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, is debating the Jan Vishwas Bill. 

One-fourth of the people in India earn less than ₹ 171 per day, says AITC MP, Md. Nadimul Haque, asking who the Jan Vishwas Bill is actually for.

If the government wants to learn the ease of doing business, come to Bengal, we’ll teach you.”

“In the last 14 years, the number of registered companies has increased by 83%. Nearly 93 lakh MSMEs operate in Bengal. Over one in three female entrepreneurs in the country comes from Bengal.”

This is a problem of our interior and national security, says Independent MP, Umeshbhai Bahubhal Patel, about the CAPF Bill, asking if the government has shown mercy to them.

The issue of CAPF officers becomes that of national security, he adds.

He asks the House to send the CAPF bill to the standing committee and make a transparent and complete law for the CAPF, he adds.

Deepender Singh Hooda, Congress MP from Haryana, gives examples of CAPF officers to show that they do not get the recognition and promotion that they deserve.

The Home Minister said in the House a day ago that we have destroyed Maoists, but our CAPF soldiers helped to achieve this.

It is a saddening fact that the CAFP officers who fought Maoists and terrorists have to now fight the government.

The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2026, the bill to make Amaravati the permanent capital of A.P. has been passed in the Rajya Sabha through a voice vote.

Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan congratulates the people on the new capital - Amaravati

IPS brings a national character, appointed by the President of India through the toughest exam, says Krishna Prasad Tenneti, TDP MP.

He says, they are given to the States for the continuation of the national spirit of the country.

The forces working in national security interact daily with the administration, executive and legislative at different levels, he adds.

“The PM and the Home Minister have a plan for the country. The way to ‘Visit Bharat’ will be faster and easier. There is a need for smoother coordination and smoother work towards law and order maintenance and internal security. I salute them for bringing this bill.”

I think the Law Ministry of the Government has gone to sleep, Mahua Moitra said.

The Supreme Court ruled that an Act cannot overrule a judgment, she says, adding that the government is overruling the judgment with a rule.

“The State is killing the officer morale with structural stagnation, and then you’re expecting that will yield excellence,” she further says.

438 personnel killed themselves in the last three years, that is nearly 150 suicides on average in a year, she further says. 50% increase has been witnessed among CAPF officers in 2025.

The IPS deputation has been weaponised against the Opposition during the election, she further says. “Officers have been transferred from W.B., saying that they are the agents of TMC. You have brought in IPS officers from the IPS-ruled States to control CAPF in Bengal,” she says.

In West Bengal, there are 2,500 CAPF companies today, which is 2.5 lakh soldiers on the ground. They are controlled by one key player -- Shalabh Mathur, who joined IPS just two months ago,” she further says.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra sings a poem about soldiers in the Rajya Sabha.

She says that she stands in the Rajya Sabha on behalf of every CAPF soldier, adding that she speaks for the CAPF who didn’t get medals and were called operational casualties after death.

More than 128 CAPF were killed from 1990 to 2025, she says. “The government is also taxing their pension.”

You are avoiding the hard work and dedication of the CAFP soldiers by appointing IPS officers to the top position, says SP MP Dharmendra Yadav.

The Government brought Agniveer to stop the pension for the soldiers, he also said, asking what the government is doing.

CAPF personnel are sitting in the same position for more than 15 years without a promotion, while the IPS personnel get promoted three to four times by that time, he adds.

The CAPF bill should go to the Joint Parliamentary Committee and go through a thorough discussion, he says, adding that the government should also listen to the words of the soldiers.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday (April 2, 2026) submitted a letter to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to appoint MP Ashok Mittal as Deputy Leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha, replacing MP Raghav Chadha, according to party sources.

- Nikhil M. Babu

Minister of Civil Aviation, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, says that the opposition had different stands about the bill to make Amaravati the permanent capital of Andhra Pradesh.

“If a person at the helm of state affairs makes irresponsible statements, what is going to be the future of the State,” he asks.

We are not able to tell where the capital of the State is if someone asks, he says, adding that the recent government was irresponsible about the matter.

He adds that the NDA government supports the rebuilding of Amaravati and salutes the hard work and sacrifice of farmers and women of Andhra Pradesh.

It is a statement of national shame as the so-called collective wisdom and intelligence of the House, says Congress MP Renuka Chowdhary.

She adds that it took 12 years for everyone to process a parliamentary procedure.

She says that the governement comes to the Hosue with the Bill and decides Amaravati will be the capital of Andhra Pradesh.

She adds that this is “the victory of the farmers who fought day and night for this.”

Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityananda Rai presents the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2026.

The Chairman passes the motion amidst sloganeering by the Opposition MPs

Leader of Rajya Sabha J.P. Nadda asks to look the passing of the Bill in the ‘Viksit Bharat’ angle than that of politics.

He says that, “PM Modi’s Government has passed the bill in two days, which was stuck for 30 years without passing.”

He says that the aim of the Government is to bring women to 50% of the capacity of the House.

Mr. Kharge says that the government remembered the bill all of a sudden, after three months.

He adds that not everything will happen in the BJP government’s wish in a democracy.

He says the BJP MPs will listen only to PM Modi, not even to the Chairman of the House.

Leader of Opposition of the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, says that the Women’s Reservation was brought by the Congress and they are not against it.

He says the Bills like the Women’s Reservation Bill can be taken up after the upcoming Assembly elections.

He adds that the government is passing it now to take credits.

Kiren Rijiju refutes Mr. Kharge’s remark and says that the Bill is of immense importance and there is nothing political about it.

As the Rajya Sabha is planning to move to take up the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, MP Jairam Ramesh tells the Chairman that there was no proper answer given to his earlier question on the business of the House today.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, says that the House will take up the Andhra Bill first, and secondly, it will take up the pending Bill from the Lok Sabha, the Jan Vishwas Bill.

He also said the government will propose to adjourn the House and later conduct a brief session to discuss further matters.

Mr. Ramesh also says that the government has a single-minded objective of passing the Bills before the upcoming Assembly elections to get political gains, by violating the model code of conduct of the polls.

BJD MP from Odisha, Sasmit Patra, says that the turtles that come to the beaches of the Bay of Bengal, on the way back to the bay, get stuck in the nets of trollers and die by the propellers of the small boats that go for fishing.

He asks the government what measures it will take as a solution to this.

MoS of Science and Technology says that it is not just a problem on the shores of Odisha, but also of the Arabian Sea and Western Ghats as well.

He adds that the government, as part of the Deep Ocean Mission, has set up CMLRE, which is a centre that takes care of the fauna, thus the concerns raised by Mr. Patra.

DMK MP Rajathi asks the MoS of Science and Technology if there are any dedicated initiatives proposed to mentor young girls and women to pursue a career in the space sector.

MoS of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh says in reply that ‘Yuvika’ is one of such initiatives that gives mentoring to girls as much as to boys.

He says there are a number of other programmes that provide career programmes to girls and women of several age groups.

He says that NEP allows children to switch programmes after they find out a new career path.

BJP MP from Maharashtra, Medha Vishram Kulkarni, says that 900 hectares of land in Pune were reserved for a biodiversity park.

She adds that, even after 25 years, no construction has started and many illegal constructions happen on the land.

She asks whether the central government take initiatives to save the land of biodiversity.

Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Kirtivardhan Singh, says that both the centre and the State have the facilities to protect the land, and he believes it is the responsibility of the State to protect the land.

Speaker Om Birla says that no Member of the House should rise and talk to another member of the House, citing an emergency.

He adds that the members can wait for their turns as the Speaker calls out the names.

He adds that the house should go forward with adhering to the rules.

BJP MP from Jharkhand, Aditya Prasad, talks about an “unfortunate” incident in Jharkhand where a 13-year-old girl was killed by her mother in the name of sacrifice.

He cites a similar incident in which a mother who sacrificed her child with her lover, which led to a country-wide protest, after which the case was solved.

He says that the JMM-led government is not taking effort to end this kind of practices.

The government today said in the Lok Sabha that consumers are not required to install pre-paid electricity meters.

Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour, Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar rejected suggestions that the government was compelling consumers to adopt pre-paid meters like private companies.

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NCP (SCP) MP Fauzia Khan invites the attention of the House to a “silent financial crisis, affecting crores of families across India.”

She says that insurance companies, including LIC, provide a “mere 30-day grace period for premium payment.”

She adds that a single payment lapse caused by a sudden job loss or a medical emergency can collapse an entire policy, which has been maintained by “years of faithful premium payment.”

She adds that policies are supposed to support families through crisis.

She asks the government to implement pro-consumer reforms, including the extension of the grace period from 30 days to 90 days.

Congress MP from Tamil Nadu B. Manickam Tagore, thanks the Aviation Minister for expanding Madurai Airport as an international airport.

He asks the Minister if the government is considering including the airpost as a designated point of call in the bilateral ar agreement to facilitate increased international flight.

The Minister said that the government will try to encourage more international connectivity to Madurai Airport.

Rajya Sabha Chairman asks permission to skip lunch to discuss the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Amendment Bill. Jairam Ramesh questions the uncertainty of the house, asking if the Rajya Sabha will continue on the next day or will be adjourned sine die.

Lok Sabha begins after mourning two former members of the house. Narayan Sahu from Odisha and Jangvir Singh were members of Rajya Sabha.