Page 2 - Parliament

SIR to dominate Opposition's agenda in Winter Session of Parliament

Opposition has sought replies on Delhi's air pollution, the new labour codes and more

Govt meets floor leaders of parties ahead of Parliament's Winter session

An all-party meeting convened by the government ahead of the Winter session of Parliament is underway here on Sunday where the opposition is likely to rake up various issues, including Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, the Delhi blast and foreign policy matters that it wants to raise in both Houses. While Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and his deputy Arjun Ram Meghwal are representing the government, the opposition is being represented by Jairam Ramesh, Gaurav Gogoi, Pramod Tiwari (Congress), T R Baalu (DMK), Derek O'Brien (TMC) and E T Mohammed Bashir (IUML). Union minister J P Nadda represents the BJP. He is the BJP president as well as Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha. Manoj Jha of the RJD, Harsimrat Kaur of the SAD and Sanjay Jha of the JD(U) are also attending the meet. The customary meeting has been convened to ensure smooth functioning of the two Houses during the session where several new bills are planned to b

Parliament Winter session: Govt to push reform agenda, Oppn to target SIR

The Winter session of Parliament beginning Monday will see the government push its reforms agenda with a legislation to open up the civil nuclear sector to private players, while the opposition is set to rake up the issue of revision of electoral rolls across 12 states and Union territories. The three-week long session of Parliament comes against the backdrop of the overwhelming victory of the BJP-led NDA in the Bihar Assembly elections which is expected to reflect in the renewed push for reforms after a virtual washout of the Monsoon session. Besides the crucial 'The Atomic Energy Bill, 2025', which seeks to govern the use and regulation of atomic energy in India, the Higher Education Commission of India Bill and eight other draft legislations are also on the agenda for the session which will have 15 sittings. The government already had to step back from its plans to bring a bill to empower the president to make regulations for the Union Territory of Chandigarh directly, after stif

Australian senator barred from Parliament after wearing burqa in protest

An Australian senator who is campaigning for a national burqa ban was barred Tuesday from Parliament for the rest of the year for wearing the Muslim garment in the chamber. Pauline Hanson, the 71-year-old leader of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigration One Nation minor party, was accused of performing a disrespectful stunt on Monday when she walked into the Senate shrouded in a head-to-ankle garment to protest fellow senators' refusal to consider her bill that would ban the burqa and other full-face coverings in public places. Senators suspended her for the rest of the day on Monday. In the absence of an apology, they passed a censure motion Tuesday that carried one of the harshest penalties against a senator in recent decades. She was barred from seven consecutive Senate sitting days. The Senate rises for the year on Thursday, and Hanson's suspension will continue when Parliament resumes in February next year. Hanson later told reporters she would be judged by voters at the next elect

No Bill on Chandigarh admin to be introduced in winter session: MHA

The Ministry further said that any decision on the matter will be taken only after adequate consultations with all stakeholders

SC notice to Centre on plea to implement women's reservation in Parliament

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan asked the government to respond to the PIL seeking the implementation of the women's reservation law

Winter Session of Parliament from December 1; truncated one, says Oppn

In 2025, if Parliament sits for all 15 sittings planned during the session, it would have sat for 62 days, or 21 days on average for each of the three sessions in the year

French PM Sebastien Lecornu races against the clock to form government

Just two days after being reappointed, Lecornu must present a draft budget bill to cabinet and parliament on Monday

Centre moots extending tenure of parliamentary panels to two years

The move follows concerns from lawmakers that the current one-year term is too short for committees to conduct in-depth studies and prepare effective reports

Parliamentary panel seeks MCA report on CCI's role in digital landscape

The standing committee chaired by Bhartruhari Mahtab, Member of Parliament in its report tabled in the Lok Sabha during the monsoon session backed the need to have an ex-ante regulatory framework

Missing from the House: Tracing the political legacy of Muslim women MPs

Despite exclusion and patriarchy, 18 Muslim women have entered the Lok Sabha to date - but their absence from public discourse is stark. This book recalls their political legacy

Nepal to hold parliamentary elections on March 5: President's Office

Nepal's next parliamentary elections will be held on March 5, President Ramchandra Paudel's office has announced, following a week of violent protests that led to the resignation of K P Sharma Oli and Sushila Karki taking over as the country's first woman prime minister. President Paudel, while dissolving the House of Representatives on the recommendation of the newly-appointed prime minister on Friday, said the next parliamentary election would be held on March 5. Former Chief Justice Karki, 73, was sworn-in as the country's first woman prime minister, ending days of political uncertainty after the abrupt resignation of Oli this week following wide-spread anti-government protests against a ban on social media and alleged corruption. Oli quit on Tuesday shortly after hundreds of agitators entered his office demanding his resignation for the death of at least 19 people in police action during Monday's protests. The prime minister will form a small Cabinet on Sunday, two days after h

Himachal monsoon 2025 claims 386 lives, causes ₹4,465 crore losses: SDMA

Of these, 218 deaths were caused by rain-related disasters, including landslides, flash floods, cloudbursts, drowning, electrocution, snake bites, and house collapses

Nepal dissolves Parl, sets elections for March 2026 under interim PM Karki

Announcing the decision, the President's Office said the dissolution was approved in the first cabinet meeting convened by Karki at 11 pm, marking the start of a six-month transitional government

Parl panel suggests strict laws, mandatory fact-checking to curb fake news

Calling fake news a threat to public order and democratic process, a parliamentary committee has recommended amending penal provisions, increasing fine and fixing accountability to tackle the challenge. In its draft report adopted on Tuesday, the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has also called for mandatory presence of fact-checking mechanism and internal ombudsman in all print, digital and electronic media organisations. Sources said the committee has made a raft of suggestions, including a collaborative effort among all stake-holders covering government, private and independent fact-checkers to tackle the challenge of fake news. The committee headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey adopted the report unanimously, showing a cross-party support for stepped-up efforts to handle the menace of fake news, the sources added. The Committee desire the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to ensure that fact-checking mechanism and internal ombudsman should be m

Datanomics: Low vote share, big office as new VP's winning margin declines

Vice-presidents: From Radhakrishan to Radhakrishnan

Sri Lanka Parliament set to strip privileges of former presidents

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has ruled that the bill to withdraw presidential privileges extended to former presidents and their widows can be approved in Parliament by a simple majority. The court's ruling was read out in Parliament on Tuesday by Speaker Jagath Wickremaratna. The Supreme Court has determined that no provision of the bill is inconsistent with any provision of the Constitution and can be enacted by Parliament with a simple majority, he said. Following the apex court's ruling, the parliamentary business committee decided to debate the bill on Wednesday. If passed, the bill will end special benefits such as an official residence, monthly allowances, secretarial support, official transport, and other perks currently provided to former presidents and their widows. Sri Lanka currently has five living former presidents and one widow entitled to these privileges. In late July, the government gazetted a new bill aimed at revoking all privileges granted to former presidents o

Voting begins for vice presidential election; PM Modi first to cast vote

Voting began for the vice presidential poll on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the first to cast his vote. The poll is witnessing a direct contest between ruling NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy, with the BJP-led alliance having a clear edge in the poll necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar. Among the early voters were Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Kiren Rijiju. Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Harivansh, BJP MP Kangana Ranaut and SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav were among others who came to cast their vote. Members of both Houses of Parliament will cast their votes in the Parliament House between 10 AM and 5 PM on Tuesday. Counting votes will begin at 6 PM, and the results will be announced late evening. Members of Parliament are not bound by party whips to vote in the vice presidential election, which takes place under a secret ballot system. The electoral college for the vice ...

Vice President polls on September 9: How Parliament numbers stack up

The election for the Vice Presidential was called after Jagdeep Dhankhar's resignation; NDA's CP Radhakrishnan and INDIA bloc's Sudershan Reddy are in the fray

EVM an aggregator of votes, can't be used in presidential, V-P elections

Electronic voting machines (EVMs), which have so far been used in five Lok Sabha and over 130 assembly polls, cannot be used in presidential, vice presidential, Rajya Sabha and state legislative council elections. Why? Because the machines, in use since 2004, are designed to work as vote aggregators in direct elections such as the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Voters press the button against the name of the candidate of their choice and the one who bags the maximum number of votes is declared elected. But the presidential and vice presidential elections are held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. Under the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote, every elector can mark as many preferences as there are candidates contesting the election. These preferences for the candidates are to be marked by the elector, by placing the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on, against the names of the ...