In its effort to give reforms a big legislative push, the NDA Government is preparing a long list of legislative business to be transacted during the Winter Session that begins from November 24 and concludes on December 23. Among the important Bills that the Government is looking for clearance is the Insurance laws (Amendment) Bill. The Gover-nment is also likely to introduce a Bill for scrapping of obsolete laws and a legislation to amend Indian Immigration laws.
The decision for the Winter Session schedule was taken by the Cabinet Committee of Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The CCPA also has Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Anant Kumar as members. HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs Prakash Javadekar and Santosh Gangwar also attended the meeting as special invitees. The committee has sent its recommendations for the dates to Prime Minister for approval who will then forward it to the President.
During the meeting, the CCPA discussed the pending legislations and the report of the All-India Chief Whips Conference that had recommended at least 100 sittings in a year along with a code of conduct for legislators. The upcoming Winter Session will have 22 sittings.
From the Winter Session, the Rajya Sabha will see a swap of timings of Question Hour with Zero Hour. The Zero Hour will now be taken up first at 11 am while the Question Hour will begin at 12 noon instead of 11 am as has had been the practice so far.
There are total 67 Bills pending in the Parliament out of which eight are in the lok Sabha and 59 in the Rajya Sabha. According to a senior Minister, the Government would like to “push” for the passage of at least 30 to 35 legislations. Naidu will now circulate all the pending Bills to the concerned Ministries, giving them a week’s time, to prioritise the legislative work.
Meanwhile, sources said the finalisation of seating arrangement in lok Sabha is expected to be over before the Session begins. “We expect the arrangement to be in place before the Winter Session,” said an official at Parliament. The exercise has dragged for almost six months after the declaration of the results of the 16th lok Sabha polls on May 16.