Most expected Budget session begins at Parliament today

The crucial budget session of Parliament began on Monday with President Pratibha Patil's address at the joint session of both Houses.

Inaugurating the budget session of Parliament, Patil offered her sympathies to the people of Ladakh where a cloudburst had killed nearly 200 people last August.

"Our heart goes out to the people of Ladakh, who suffered the consequences of a severe cloudburst, leading to an unprecedented loss of life and property," she said.

She also condoled the death of classical music legend Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.

Talking on corruption, Patil said the Government is committed to fight against corruption in public life.

In her address, Patil stated that India will ratify the UN convention against corruption while considering other measures, including abolition of ministers' discretionary powers, to tackle corruption.

Patil also said it is priority of the government to protect the common man from rising food prices. "Probity and integrity in public life is crucial," she added.

She also said that the Central Government is concerned about the ill effects of black money and stands committed to tackling the problem.

"The issue of black money has attracted a lot of attention in the recent past, especially that allegedly stashed away in foreign banks. The government fully shares the concern about the ill effects of black money, whether generated by evasion of taxes on income earned legitimately or through illegal activities," Patil said.

She said the Government stands committed to tackling the menace frontally.

Welcoming the 'dawn of democracy' in the Arab world, President Pratibha Patil on Monday referred to the 'momentous developments' in Egypt.

"Egypt has recently seen momentous developments. As a democracy ourselves, we welcome the dawn of democracy elsewhere," she said.

Talking on Indo-Pak talks, Patil said, "India is ready for meaningful dialogue, as long as Pakistan does not allow groups to use its territory to export terror."

Meanwhile Congress MPs from Telangana tried to disrupt the opening day of the budget session.

The MPs sat in dharna in Parliament premises objecting to President Patil's omission of statehood for Telangana in her speech. The MPs raised slogans at the Central Hall in Parliament at the end of the President's speech.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar announced that all woman employees working in Parliament will be provided office drop. The Speaker said that the measure comes in the wake of rising law and order atrocities against women in the national capital.

The budget session will continue till April 21, with an 18-day recess from March 17 to April 3. The first part of the session will have 17 sittings while the second part will have 12 sittings.

Minutes before the session began Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this budget session of Parliament is very crucial as the budget has to be debated and passed by two houses of the Parliament. "We also hope to bring some important pieces of legislation for consideration of Parliament and its our sincere hope that this session will be peaceful and will bring productive results."

CNN-IBN has learnt that the Opposition and the government have reached the near consensus to break the parliament deadlock over the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe in the 2G scam.