Parliament has been adjourned for day.

Opposition MPs in Rajya Sabha slammed the Union Budget claiming it fails to deliver on the government's trumpeted 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' slogan as it has cut allocations for schemes for minorities and overlooks concerns of farmers, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Participating in the debate on the Budget, Samajwadi Party MP Javed Ali Khan said the expenditure on schemes meant for the minority groups have been slashed over the years.

"The Budget or any policy document depicts the government's philosophy. In this Budget of 2025-26, minorities have been totally overlooked. The welfare schemes for minorities, the programmes have been either shut or allocations have been cut," he said.

He said the allocation for pre-matric scholarships for minority groups students had a budget of Rs 433 crore in 2023-24, but only Rs 94 crore was released, and in 2024-25, the allocation was Rs 326 crore, but only Rs 90 crore was spent.

Congress MP Ashok Singh batted for a loan waiver for farmers, adding that a law should to made so that the Minimum Support Price for crops is decided based on the input cost.

Niranjan Bishi of the Biju Janata Dal said the Budget should have announced cuts in the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG, which would have helped bring down inflation.

The government is using almost the entire borrowing in 2025-26 towards financing capital expenditure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha. 

She said the effective capital expenditure in FY'26 is Rs 15.48 lakh crore, which is 4.3 per cent of GDP. The fiscal deficit target is 4.4 per cent of the GDP for next fiscal.

"It indicates that the government is using almost the entire borrowed resources for financing effective capital expenditure. So the borrowings are not going for revenue expenditure or committed expenditure, or any of those kinds.

"It's going only for creating capital assets. So, in effect, the government intends to use about 99 per cent of borrowed sources to finance effective capital expenditure in the upcoming year," she said.

Various global, domestic factors influenced value of rupee against US dollar, Ms Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha.

Speaking in the Lower House, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: "The Budget has been presented in times of uncertainty. The government is investing in the people and in the economy. The food inflation has been moderated. The effective capital expenditure is projected at Rs 15.48 lakh crores. The fiscal deficit is expected at 4.4%." 

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is replying to the debate on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav attacked the government in Lok Sabha alleging mismanagement at the Maha Kumbh and asked why no final digits are emerging about those who died in the stampede even though a lot is bring advertised about digitisation.

The Kannauj MP also hit out at the Uttar Pradesh government saying the "double engine government is doing double blunders".

"First time, devotees at Kumbh have got stuck in a 300-km-long traffic jam, the borders have been sealed... Is this an image of 'Viksit Bharat' where the government is not even able to manage traffic? What is the point of going on moon when we cannot settle issues on earth," he asked.

"I want to ask where are those drones now?... The whole advertisement about digitisation... even then they are not able to give figures of those who have died during Maha Kumbh or are lost," Yadav said.

"They claim that they have double engine government in Uttar Pradesh but the double engine government is doing double blunders," he added.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday asserted that the Constitution signed by the founding fathers carrying 22 miniatures is the "only authentic one" and only that should be promulgated in the country.

The Chairman reacted to Bharatiya Janata Party MP Radha Mohan Agrawal's claim that the Congress "removed" 22 illustrations included by Nandlal Bose from the Indian Constitution including those related to Lord Ram, Krishna, Mohenjo-Daro and Mahatma Gandhi from the Constitution.

Dhankhar said, "I have no doubt that the Constitution signed by the founding fathers of the Constitution carrying 22 miniatures is the only authentic one and it can include amendments by the Parliament. If there is any change affected by the Judiciary or any institution, it is not acceptable to this House. I will appeal to the Leader of the House to ensure that in the country only the authentic version be promulgated. Any violation of this should be taken seriously by the government."

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday announced extension of translation services to six new languages in the Parliament including Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Urdu and Sanskrit.

Addressing the House, Birla said that previously, the translation services were available in 10 languages including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu, in addition to Hindi and English.

"Now, we have also included six more languages--Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Urdu, and Sanskrit. Along with this, for the additional 16 languages, as human resources become available, we are making efforts to provide simultaneous translations in those as well," he said.

Several ministers of the Maha Vikas Aghadi on Tuesday held a protest in Parliament premises demanding to increase the limit for soyabean purchases.

Congress Minister Varsha Gaikwad and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) Minister Supriya Sule were among others who participated in the protest.

The minister were heard sloganeering, "Soyabean khareed ki samay seema badhayi jaaye (Increase the time limit for soybean purchases)".

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla welcomes the delegation from the Maldives Parliament.

Congress Minister Manish Tewari has once again given an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha to discuss the treatment of Indian citizens deported from the United States and the government's response on the matter.

In his letter to the Secretary General of the Lok Sabha, Mr Tewari wrote, "According to US estimates, approximately 7.25 lakh undocumented Indians reside in the United States, with 24,000 currently held in detention facilities. Of these, 487 individuals have been served final deportation orders, and 298 have been positively identified as Indian nationals. This raises concerns regarding their deportation process and the conditions they face while being repatriated."

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to reply to the debate on the Union Budget in Lok Sabha at around 5 pm today.

Congress Minister Manickam Tagore has submitted an adjournment notice to raise a discussion on safety of women passengers in trains. This comes following a horrific incident reported from Coimbatore where a pregnant woman was thrown out of a moving train after she resisted a man's attempt to rape her. The incident took place on February 6, around10:30 am when the woman, Revathi (36), was travelling alone from Tiruppur to Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor on the Coimbatore-Tirupati Intercity Express train.