Month-long Winter Session to commence on November 24

New Delhi, Oct 27: Winter session of Parliament will start from November 24 and conclude on December 23 during which a heavy legislative agenda is on the cards.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh today recommended the dates to the President. The month-long session will have a total of 22 sittings in which four days have been earmarked for Private Members' business.

A total of 67 bills -- 59 in Rajya Sabha and eight in Lok Sabha -- are pending and the government will push for passage of "at least 30 to 35" legislations, a senior minister said.

This will be the second major session since the Narendra Modi Government took over in May.

The long wait for finalisation of seating arrangement in Lok Sabha is expected to be over before the session commences, almost six months after the constitution of the new House.

"We expect the arrangement to be in place before the winter session," said an official at Parliament over the exercise which has dragged on after the declaration of the results of the 16th Lok Sabha polls on May 16. Average number of sittings in the past five Winter sessions has been 22 and the dates were decided based on precedents, source said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Anant Kumar and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu are members of the Committee.

HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Ministers of state for Parliamentary Affairs Prakash Javadekar and Santosh Gangwar are special invitees to the Committee.

PTI