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LS, RS adjourned till Wednesday

The Lok Sabha, which reassembled today after the fall of the BJP-led government on Saturday, was adjourned till April 21.

The House will reassemble on Wednesday to approve the Budget for 1999-2000 and other financial matters.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of all political parties this morning convened by Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi.

As soon as the House assembled, Balayogi said it was agreed upon by the leaders of political parties that the rest of the business, particularly the Finance Bill, should be taken up for consideration on Wednesday.

He thereafter announced adjournment of the house till April 21.

Earlier, speaking to the members in his chamber, the speaker said it was needless for him to specially bring to the notice of the members that the industry had expressed its concern about the Budget, specially Finance Bill.

''Parliament has always had the tradition of transacting essential financial business on priority basis in times of transition,'' the speaker said.

He appealed to the members to give their highest consideration with highest common measure of agreement for completing essential financial business.

The Rajya Sabha, after a brief sitting today, was also adjourned till April 22.

The adjournment came after the minister of state for parliamentary affairs Santosh Kumar Gangwar informed the House of the all-party decision that the general budget and the railway budget would be passed by the Lok Sabha without discussion on April 21.

Earlier, the House mourned the loss of human life in the recent earthquake in the hill region of Uttar Pradesh. It also mourned the death of former members H R Basavaraj and A R A Abdul Samad.

A copy of the letter of the resignation of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of April 17, and the letter of the President to the prime minister accepting the resignation of the council of ministers, were laid on the table of the house.

UNI

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