Lok Sabha will not shift timing of Question Hour: Speaker

The Lok Sabha will not be shifting the timing of Question Hour, as is being planned by the Rajya Sabha from the Winter Session beginning Monday, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said.

Question Hour in the Lok Sabha begins 11 a.m., and Mahajan said no leader attending Saturday's all-party meeting had expressed any divergent views to her stand for not altering the timing of the session.

Mahajan said starting the day with Zero Hour, which often witnesses an uproar, could better be avoided, suggesting it was not a good beginning to the day's proceedings.

Notwithstanding reservations by some parties, Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari has decided to go ahead with shifting the timing of the Question Hour from 11 a.m. to 12 noon from the upcoming Winter Session in an apparent move to ensure disruption-free proceedings during this segment.

The month-long Winter 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 Government has already declared that it would go ahead with reform legislations like insurance bill in the Winter Session.