All you need to know
Agencies
New Delhi, November 18:
The Winter Session of the Parliament will begin today and will run till December 13. As per reports, the Modi government is likely to push for the passage of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in this session of the parliament.
Meanwhile, all-party meet was held on Sunday where the opposition demanded that issues of economic slowdown, detention of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah must be discussed during the Winter Session of the Parliament.
Here are ten things you need to know about the Winter Session of the Parliament:
- The government is scheduled to present nearly 50 bills, including the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in this Session of the Parliament. The bill is aimed at granting nationality to non-Muslim immigrants from neighbouring countries. It met heavy resistance when it was last time presented in the Parliament.
- Apart from it, other bills that are likely to be taken up during the course are Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019; Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill 2019; Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019.
- An all-party meet was also held on Sunday where Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured that the government is ready to discuss all issues and the most important job of the House is to discuss and debate. He also said that this session should also be productive as the last one.
- “Government is ready to discuss all issues within the framework of rules and procedures of the Houses,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi quoted PM Modi as saying.
- The opposition, however, told the government that they want discussions on the issue of economic slowdown, detention of Farooq Abdullah, farmers distress and pollution in the national capital.
- “The Opposition demanded that the issues of economic slowdown, job loss, farm distress and pollution must be discussed during the session,” PTI quoted Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as saying.
- Meanwhile, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla has appealed to all political parties for their cooperation to ensure the smooth functioning of the Parliament.
- This is going to be the second session of the Parliament for the BJP-NDA government after it won the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.
- This session of the Parliament will see a total of 20 sitting in over 26 days including four private days.
- The last session of the Parliament was very productive as 35 bills were passed in Lok Sabha while 32 bills were cleared in Rajya Sabha.
