With passing of nuclear bill planned, govt reaches out to parties

With plans to bring the civil nuclear liability bill soon, government has sought to reach out to members of Parliament of all hues amid indications that the current session could be extended till September 3.

As part of reaching out to the recently-elected Rajya Sabha members from various parties, prime minister Manmohan Singh attended a dinner in New Delhi last night.

Hosted by Congress whip in Rajya Sabha Rajeev Shukla, it was perhaps the first such exercise in which several non-Congress leaders were present including Arun Jaitley, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav and Ajit Singh.

Several Union ministers including P Chidambaram, PK Bansal, Prithviraj Chavan, RPN Singh, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Delhi chief minister Shiela Dikshit attended the dinner. AIADMK members, who were also invited, did not attend the dinner while DMK MPs took part, the sources said.

There are also several bills pending in the session, the first week of which was lost over uproar on the issue of price rise.