Thursday, December 30 2004 16:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Budget session of Parliament will not begin before February 20, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said today (Dec 30, 2004).

The date of the session would be decided by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, Azad told reporters replying to questions in New Delhi.

"It is too early to talk about the date of the session," he said.

Asked about the possibility of change of Assembly election dates for Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana (February 3,15,23) in view of the coming Budget session of Parliament, Azad said that these dates were final and "there is no need for changing them."

To a question about the telecast of the meetings of Parliamentary Standing Committees of various Ministries on the pattern of Parliamentary proceedings, Azad said that it was not possible to telecast the proceedings of Standing Committees.

There was no unanimity on this issue among the political parties, he said, explaining that neither chairman nor members was allowed to talk to the media about the proceedings till their reports were tabled in Parliament.

"If the telecast is allowed, officials would not come forward with truth," he added.