Winter Session of Parliament will be productive, hopes PM
The Winter Session of Parliament will continue till December 23 and will have 22 sittings. There are 67 Bills currently pending before Parliament.
Addressing an all-party meeting convened by Parliamentary Affairs Minster M. Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday expressed confidence that the Winter Session of Parliament beginning on Monday will be as productive as the budget session.
The PM said his government will continue to talk to the Opposition and other parties during the session.
The NDA government on Sunday sought to mollify an angry Mamata Banerjee ahead of the session, saying it had no role in the CBI action against some TMC leaders in the Saradha scam case and that there should be "no misunderstanding on this account".
Modi also referred to his Independence Day speech in which he had sought to give credit for work done during the budget session to both the government and the Opposition.
"Unitedly, all important issues can be taken forward," he said. The meeting was attended by about 40 leaders from 26 parties. Trinamool Congress did not attend the meeting.
The Winter Session of Parliament begins from November 24 and ends on December 23 and it will consist of 22 sittings.
There are 67 Bills currently pending before Parliament. Of these 9 Bills were introduced in the previous Session of Parliament, while 40 of these were introduced in the 15th Lok Sabha, which was the regime of the UPA II Government. 18 other Bills are pending from earlier Lok Sabhas.
Naidu told the meeting that the government will walk an extra mile to accommodate the concerns and suggestions of various parties to enable smooth functioning of two houses of Parliament.
He made a specific reference to the need for early passing of Insurance Laws Amendment Bill that seeks to enhance FDI limit in insurance sector.
However, the bill is likely to face resistance.
Janata Dal-United leader K.C. Tyagi said after the meeting that the bill was being opposed by Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, and the Trinamool apart from his own party.
"We have urged the Congress to take lead in opposing the bill," Tyagi said.
| Facts for Winter Session of Parliament - The Winter Session of Parliament begins from 24th November and ends on December 23rd. It will consist of 22 sittings. - There are 67 Bills currently pending before Parliament. - Of these 9 Bills were introduced in the previous Session of Parliament, while 40 of these were introduced in the 15th Lok Sabha, which was the regime of the UPA II Government. 18 other Bills are pending from earlier Lok Sabhas. - The government has promulgated two ordinances in the last few months. These were the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance 2014 and Textile Undertakings (Nationalisation) Laws, Ordinance 2014. (Bills to replace both these ordinances will have to be brought in this Session of Parliament to ensure that they do not lapse.) - Of the Bills pending, 11 are related to Health and Family Welfare. This includes the Mental Health Care Bill, 2013, the Hiv (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014 - There are 9 Bills related to Labour and Employment. These include the apprentices (Amendment bill) 2014, the factories amendment bill 2014. Older bills like Child labour (prohibition and Regulation) Bill 2012, Building and construction worker related law bill, 2013 which are still pending. - A number of pending Bills are still being considered by Standing Committees: These include Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) 2014, the rights of persons of disabilities bill, 2014 and so on. - Whether the Committee reports on these Bills will come in time for these Bills to be taken up for consideration and passing during the Winter Session remains to be seen. - The insurance (law) Amendment Bill, 2008 which allows foreign investors to hold up to 49 per cent of the capital in an Indian insurance company, is currently being considered by a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha. The report is due in the Winter Session of Parliament after which the Bill can be moved for consideration and passing. - Two Bills have been cleared by the Cabinet in the last three months. These are the Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Bill, 2014 and School of Planning and Architecture Bill, 2014. There are also a number of draft Bills on which Ministries have held pre-legislative consultation. These include the Small Factories (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Bill, 2014, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2014, amendments to the Citizenship Act, 1955, and the Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2014. - Starting with the Winter Session, the Rajya Sabha has decided to shift its Question Hour from 11am to noon and has also extended its sitting time by an hour. Lok Sabha schedule remains the same. (The change in Rajya Sabha can be seen in light of the performance of Question Hour in the 2014 Budget Session, where the Question Hour functioned for 87 per cent of its scheduled time in Lok Sabha, but only for 40 per cent of its scheduled time in Rajya Sabha. Rajya Sabha had tried to address this problem in 2011, when Question Hour was shifted to be held from 2 pm to 3 pm, but this was discontinued within a few days.) - Union minister Jitendra Singh has received a cheque of Rs 10 lakh for flood relief in Jammu and Kashmir from Repatriates Cooperative Finance & Development Bank Ltd. |
During the meeting, Naidu also said the government was keen to introduce Goods and Service Tax (GST) bill.
He gave details of 37 bills on the government's agenda including the bills for introduction and those for consideration and passage. The bills relate to a series of issues including promotion of investments, improving ease of doing business, cooperatives, strengthening of regional rural banks, higher education, imposing stiffer penalties on hijackers, replacing coal ordinance and promoting ethical practices in bio-medical and health research on humans.
Urging members to cooperate in the passage of the bills, Naidu said parliament needs to send out "a right message through appropriate legislations" in the context of "enhanced global interest in economic development of the country".
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ramvilas Paswan also attended the meeting, apart from the two Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs - Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
Leaders from Congress, BJD, BSP, NCP, DMK, CPI-M, Communist Party of India and Shiv Sena were among those who attended the meeting.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said that his party will raise the issue of black money during the session. He said the party will also press for passage of women's reservation bill.