Winter Session of Parliament to begin Nov 29, end on Dec 23

New Delhi: The Winter Session of the Parliament will commence from November 29 and will end on December 23, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) meeting, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, decided on Monday.

Like previous session, the sitting of both Houses – the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha – will be held simultaneously in accordance with Covid-19 guidelines and Members of the both Houses are expected to follow social distancing norms.

There would be about 20 sittings of each House and the government is likely to introduce Bills to facilitate privatisation of public sector banks which was announced in the General Budget this year.

A Bill is also likely to be tabled for amending the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Act, 2013, to facilitate the separation of the National Pension System Trust from the PFRDA, for ensuring universal pension coverage.

A Bill to replace the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 which was promulgated on September 30, for stricter punishment provisions in the NDPS Act may also be tabled in the Winter Session.

The government is also likely to table a second batch of ‘Supplementary Demands for Grants’, permitting it to undertake additional expenditure other than the Finance Bill.

This session will likely be stormy as the Opposition will corner the government on the issue of inflation, civilians’ killing in Jammu and Kashmir and also the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. The farmers’ agitation against the three farm laws may also be raised.

The proceedings of the Parliament’s Monsoon Session was marred by the Opposition’s ruckus on various issues including snooping by Pegasus, inflation, and farmers’ protests.

According to the PRS Legislative Research data, the productivity of the Parliament during the Monsoon Session was third time low in the last two decades wherein the Lok Sabha’s productivity was just 21 per cent while the Rajya Sabha had a productivity of 28 per cent which was eighth lowest since 1999.

–IANS