Parties assure Speaker support for smooth functioning of Parliament

All the political parties on Sunday assured Lok Speaker Sumitra Mahajan of extending their "full support" in smooth functioning of Parliament in the Monsoon Session while the government said it was ready to discuss every issue.

At an all party meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker ahead of the session beginning on Monday, issues like the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir and terrorism were raised by opposition parties.

The session will continue till August 12.

"Everyone has assured of letting the parliament function. The parties expressed their views for discussions on various issues including terrorism, situation in Jammu and Kashmir and price rise. The government has said that they are ready to talk on every issue that is raised," Mahajan told reporters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi later arrived at the parliament building for dinner hosted by the Speaker.

Leaders of the various parties including leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Biju Janata Dal leader Bhartruhari Mahtab, and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader P. Karunakaran attended the meeting.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and his two juniors Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and S.S. Ahluwalia were also present.

Earlier, Mahajan launched an e-portal for Lok Sabha members that will enable them to interact with each other and with various branches of the secretariat through e-mail and SMS, and is another step in making work of the Parliament's lower house paperless.

On the ocassion, Mahajan also released the seventh edition of the book "Practice and Procedure of Parliament" by M.N. Kaul and S.L. Shakdher.

--IANS

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