Parliament's Monsoon Session Set To Begin Today With Oppn Ready To Target Centre Amid Prez, Vice Prez Polls

This session, scheduled to be held till August 12, will have 18 sittings. The opposition parties demanded discussion with Centre on about 25 issues, 13 of which were raised by the Congress party.

New Delhi: View of Parliament House ahead of its Monsoon session in New Delhi. The Centre will present 32 bills in this Parliament session. ( Image Source :PTI )

New Delhi: The Parliament's Monsoon session is set to begin Monday as Members of Parliament (MPs) are slated to vote for the Presidential polls with NDA's candidate Droupadi Murmu and the opposition candidate, Yashwant Sinha, in the fray. This year's Monsoon Session is particularly important as polls for electing both President and Vice-President are slated to take place in this session.

While the Presidential polls will be held today, the Vice Presidential polls will take place on August 6.

14 Bills Ready To Be Presented, Oppn To Seek Discussion On 25 Issues

This session, scheduled to be held till August 12, will have 18 sittings. In the meeting convened by the government, the opposition parties demanded discussion with the government on about 25 issues, 13 of which were raised by the Congress party, as per MP and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge.

During the Monsoon Session, the Opposition is expected to raise issues pertaining to the new Agnipath recruitment scheme for the armed forces, unemployment, inflation, and alleged misuse of central agencies to target leaders among others while the Union government will seek to push several legislations.

Leaders of 36 parties attended the all-party meeting held on Sunday. These include BJP, Congress, TMC, NCP, DMK, SP, BSP, RJD, and other parties.

The prominent leaders who attended the all-party meeting include Congress MPs Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, Rashtriya Lok Dal MP Jayant Chaudhary, DMK MP Tiruchi Siva, AIADMK MP Dr M Thambi Durai, YSRCP MP Vijayasai Reddy, TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel.

It was chaired by Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and Union minister Piyush Goyal. 

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister also informed that the government would hold an all-party meeting on the Sri Lanka situation on Tuesday which will be chaired by Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar.

"32 bills have been indicated from various departments will be presented in this session of Parliament. 14 bills are ready. We will not pass the bills without discussion," he stated.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the BJP-led Union government did not inform the opposition about the 14 bills to be presented in the session beginning Monday.

"We took up 13 issues in the all-party meeting. Government will present 32 bills in the Parliament session of which only 14 are ready. They didn't even tell us about those 14 bills. We'll barely have 14 working days in session. We have to discuss 20 topics and pass 32 bills," the Congress leader said, as quoted by ANI.

He further stated that issues including "Chinese incursion, foreign policy, changes in Forest Conversation Act, issues relating to J&K and Kashmiri pandits, attacks against Congress leaders" need to be discussed.

Legislation On Agenda

As per news agency ANI, 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, passed by Lok Sabha is likely to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha in the upcoming session.
• The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022 passed by Lok Sabha is yet to be passed by Rajya Sabha.
• The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 is pending in Lok Sabha.
• 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 (Regarding 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 - It sent for printing on Thursday.
• Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019, (in respect of 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) are some of the other pending important bills, ANI reported.

(With Agency Inputs)