Monsoon Session: All-party meeting today, govt to discuss ways to maximise House productivity

New Delhi: The government will hold an all-party meeting today at 11 am, ahead of the Monsoon session of the Parliament which begins tomorrow, to formulate a strategy to maximise the productivity of the House along with addressing the concerns of the Opposition during the course of the session.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has called the meeting which is likely to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi besides the floor leaders of all political parties.

The agenda of the meeting will be to discuss the subjects that the Opposition would like to have for discussion during the session of the Parliament.
Notably, the Monsoon Session holds extreme importance as the election of the President and Vice-President’s office is slated to take place during this session.

The Presidential polls will be held on July 18 while the Vice Presidential polls will take place on August 6. President Ram Nath Kovind’s term is coming to an end on July 24 while the term of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu is ending on August 10.

Moreover, the Opposition is also slated to hold its meeting later in the day to decide on the candidate for the Vice-Presidential elections. The BJP on Saturday declared West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as NDA’s vice presidential candidate.

During the Session, the Opposition is likely to raise issues pertaining to the new Agnipath recruitment Scheme for the armed forces, unemployment, and inflation among others while the central government will seek to push several legislations during the monsoon session of Parliament.

Some of the bills that are on the pending list include The Indian Antarctica Bill, 2022. The bill is pending in the Lok Sabha.
The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2019, was passed by Lok Sabha and in the upcoming session, it is likely to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022 was passed by Lok Sabha and is yet to be passed by Rajya Sabha.

The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 is pending in Lok Sabha, and The Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019 and The National Anti-Doping Bill, 2021 are also pending in Lok Sabha.

The Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 (in respect of State of UP – amendment regarding change of district name to be approved by Cabinet) was introduced in Lok Sabha in March 2022.

The new bills to be newly introduced in the Parliament during the Monsoon session include The Central Universities Amendment Bill, 2022.
The Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022 is also a new bill and was sent for printing on Thursday.

The other bills on the government agenda include the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019, (in respect of the State of Assam), The Mediation Bill, 2021 (with Standing Committee chaired by Shri Sushil Kumar Modi); The Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (report of Standing Committee under examination) and the Registration of Marriage of Non-Resident Indian Bill, 2019 (report of Standing Committee under examination).

The other bills are the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Amendment) Bill, 2019 (report of Standing Committee under examination), and the Pesticide Management Bill, 2020 (report of Standing Committee under examination).