Parliament should not be stalled: Rijiju ahead of Winter session

Ahead of the Winter session of Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday said the House should be allowed to function smoothly and that the government will keep on holding discussions with all parties to ensure smooth proceedings.

Asked whether the demand by the opposition for a discussion on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been accepted, Rijiju said the agenda of the session will be decided by the Business Advisory Committee (BAC), which will meet this evening.

"The matter will be discussed at the Business Advisory Committee meeting this evening," he said.


After an all-party meeting convened ahead of the Winter session of Parliament, Rijiju also said that at the meeting, which was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Health Minister and BJP president J P Nadda and several opposition leaders, all parties have given good suggestions and the government has taken them positively.

"Parliament should not be stalled and it should function smoothly. Government will keep discussing with all parties to ensure smooth functioning of the House," he told reporters after the two-hour long meeting.

Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee said his party was ready to cooperate in running the House provided treasury benches also cooperate with the opposition.

"Government should allow discussion on issues such as SIR. Forty persons have lost their life conducting SIR exercise," Banerjee said.

Tiruchi Siva of the DMK said all opposition parties are unanimous in demanding discussion on SIR in the Winter session.

The Winter session commences on Monday and will conclude on December 19.

There will be a total of 15 sittings in the session which has been dubbed as a "brief session" by the opposition.

Usually, Parliament sessions have 20 sittings.