Budget session of new Lok Sabha by mid-June

New Delhi, May 15 (IANS) The budget session of the new Lok Sabha will be held in the middle of June, an official said Friday.

Before this, there will be a brief session, on the first two days of which the members elected to the house will be sworn in, while the speaker will be elected on the third day, Lok Sabha Secretary General P.D.T. Achary told reporters here.

President Pratibha Patil will address a joint sitting of parliament on the fourth day.

'If necessary, there will be a vote of confidence and thereafter the house will debate the president's address and pass the motion of thanks,' he added.

'There will then be a gap of 15-20 days before a full-fledged budget session is called. This should happen around mid-June,' Achary said.

According to the official, the new Lok Sabha will be constituted within 14-15 days of the publication of the election results in the Gazette of India.

'The publication of the results will signify the constitution of the new house,' Achary said.

'The government will then prepare the calendar (of sittings),' he added.

With the term of the present Lok Sabha expiring June 1, the new house has to be constituted by that date but the new government will have 'some flexibility' on calling its first session, he added.

Once the Lok Sabha is constituted, the president will administer oath to its senior most member - in all probability Giridhar Gamang of the Congress - as the pro-tem speaker, who in turn will swear in the other members who have been elected to the house, Achary explained.

'Under the constitution, it is the duty of the president to swear-in the members. The president, in turn, delegates this power to the pro-tem speaker,' he added.

The Lok Sabha secretariat has made elaborate arrangements to receive the newly-elected when they arrive in New Delhi and for their temporary accommodation till such time they are allotted permanent residences.

Beginning Saturday, guide posts will function at the domestic arrival terminal of the Indira Gandhi International Airport here between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. and at four railway stations - Delhi, New Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin and Sarai Rohilla - between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. till May 24.

'Members will be escorted to Parliament House where they will have to fill a set of forms and get photographed for their identity cards-cum railway passes. They will also be informed about the accommodation arrangements that have been made for them,' Achary said.

Rooms have been booked in the state-run Janpath Hotel in the vicinity of Parliament House while the guest houses here of the various state governments have been asked to make rooms available to temporarily house the newly-elected members.