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End interruptions: Speaker to MPs

Centre calls for an all-party meet to clear pending bills

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Sumitra Mahajan
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With the forthcoming Monsoon Session of the Parliament likely to be the second-last full session before the 2019 General Elections, the government is actively going to push its agenda and seek the passage of pending as well as new bills. Due to the face-off between the government and Opposition, there was hardly any business conducted during the last two sessions, both ending up as washouts.

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has now convened an all-party meet on July 17 to seek support from the Opposition. The meeting will also be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Tuesday, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan also sent a letter to all MPs asking them to allow the discussions and not disrupt the proceedings. She said it was the "moral duty" of every MP to ensure that the rules for the conduct of business in the House are not disrupted.

"Constructive opposition and lively debates are the lifelines of democracy, but you will also agree that the discussion, divergence of opinion and dissent should be within the well-established parameters and accepted norms of Parliamentary dignity and decorum so that people may continue to have an abiding faith in democracy and democratic institutions," read Mahajan's letter.

The anxiety also stems from the likelihood of the preponing of the Lok Sabha elections, or the likelihood that the elections could be held along with the state elections of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. In these cases, the forthcoming session could be the last sitting. Otherwise, the Winter Session, scheduled to commence in November, will be the last full session of the current government.

The Opposition, however, is in no mood to relent. Former NDA ally, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), has announced that their MPs will press for a no-confidence motion against the Modi government. The Monsoon Session convenes on July 18 and will end on August 10. Briefing reporters last month, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar had said that the legislative business will include the passing of six ordinances and the introduction of some key bills. Kumar had also said that the Centre is hoping to clear the backlog of some pending bills.

The Triple Talaq Bill -- the Muslim Marriage (Protection of Marriage Rights) Bill, 2017 -- which was passed in the Lok Sabha in the last session, will be a key legislation as well as pushing for constitutional status for the National Commission for OBCs.

Of the new bills, that the government is trying to introduce this session, are the DNA Profiling Bill, Dam Safety Bill, and the repealing of the University Grants Commission (UGC) with the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI). The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 are some of the pending legislation.

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