New Delhi: The government plans to hold a month-long winter session of Parliament in the fourth week of November. According to government insiders, the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry has suggested that the session will start on November 22 and end on December 23. It is also proposed to start the session on November 15.
A government official told, “The winter session will be of at least a month. It is also suggested to keep it longer than a month. The final decision will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.
The central ministries have been asked to send the tentative legislative agenda, which they would like to take forward in the session. The agenda includes bills of departmental standing committees, bills passed by one house, and new bills.
The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has also started discussions on the Covid-19 protocol with the Ministry of Health. The Center is likely to continue with the protocol to be adopted in the monsoon session. The Center had done away with the requirement of RT-PCR test for fully vaccinated members of Parliament. The Health Ministry has sought information from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats regarding the number of unvaccinated employees. A senior health ministry official told, “We examined the MPs and found that all the members have been fully vaccinated. Those who missed out during the monsoon session have also been covered.”
This will be the fourth season since the outbreak of Covid-19. The first session after the pandemic was in September 2020. After several members contracted the virus, the session was cut short and the government decided to hold a winter session in 2020. The budget session was held in January but was put on hold due to rising cases. The monsoon session was the third session after Covid-19 but was postponed prematurely due to repeated disruptions by the opposition on several issues, including demands for discussion on Pegasus spyware.
