PM Modi meets top ministers , discusses strategy for winter session

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held a meeting with senior ministers in Parliament to discuss strategy for the ongoing winter session.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal were among the attendees.

The winter session of Parliament began on November 29 and is scheduled to conclude on December 23. Meanwhile, both Houses of Parliament have witnessed repeated adjournments over the Opposition's demand for revocation of suspension of 12 MPs from the Rajya Sabha.

The MPs were suspended over alleged unruly conduct towards the end of the monsoon session in August.

The suspended members comprise six from the Congress, two each from Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena, and one each from CPI and CPM: Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of Congress; Dola Sen, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPM; and, Binoy Viswam of CPI.

The Opposition leaders called off their sit-in dharna against the suspension of the 12 Rajya Sabha MPs for Thursday as a mark of respect towards Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and 12 others who lost their lives in a chopper crash in Tamil Nadu.

Both Houses of the Parliament observed two-minute silence over the demise of General Rawat and others.