Winter Session of Parliament: At all-party meet, PM Modi calls for working together to address pending legislation

Ahead of the commencement of Winter Session of Parliament from tomorrow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday attended all-party leaders meeting here where he said that the government would work together with all parties in a constructive manner and take up all pending legislative works.

Leaders from all major political parties, who were present in the meeting, put forth their views on the occasion. Union Ministers Amit Shah, Thawarchand Gehlot, V Muraleedharan and Arjun Ram Meghwal attended the meeting, convened by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi for the leaders of all parties in the House.

Opposition leaders such as TDP's Jaydev Galla, Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Satish Mishra of BSP also participated in the meeting.

TMC lawmakers Derek O'Brien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay, LJP lawmaker Chirag Paswan, RPI leader Ramdas Athawale, AIADMK's Navneet Krishnan and Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal (S) were also present in the meeting.

The Prime Minister, while responding to specific issues raised by the leaders of different political parties, said that the government would work together with all parties in a constructive manner to address pending legislation and frame policy for specific issues related to environment and pollution, economy, agriculture and farmers, and rights of women, youth and less privileged sections of the society.

"The Prime Minister emphasised that the 250th session of the Rajya Sabha provided a unique opportunity for highlighting the unique strengths of the Indian Parliament as well as the Indian Constitution, in providing an overarching framework of governance institutions for a diverse country like India. The backdrop of the session being held as India celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi also made it a unique and special occasion," read an official statement.

Prime Minister Modi also complimented the presiding officers of the two Houses for the smooth running of the last session of Parliament and observed that this had helped to create a positive impact among the people about the functioning of the legislative arm of the government.

While the government is expected to lay thrust on its legislative agenda, the opposition parties are likely to raise the issues of their concern. The Parliament session will continue till December 13.

On Saturday, an all-party meet was convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla ahead of the Winter Session in an effort to ensure the smooth functioning of the House.