Parliament session to begin on Oct 17
The next Parliament session, probably the last of the 14th LS, will be held from October 17 to November 21, by which time the Indo-US nuclear deal is expected to go through all the processes.
The next Parliament session, probably the last of the 14th Lok Sabha, will be held from October 17 to November 21, by which time the Indo-US nuclear deal is expected to go through all the processes.
The delay in the schedule prompted a sharp reaction from the Left which said "this was a clear subversion of democracy...To dovetail our Parliamentary schedule to the time table of the US Congress".
A decision to convene the session was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, chaired by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday.
The five-week session will be the second phase of the two-day session which saw the Manmohan Singh government winning the trust vote. It was dubbed as "tainted victory" by the opposition in the wake of alleged cash-for-vote scam.
The government convened the two-day session of the Lok Sabha on July 21 after Left parties withdrew their support to it on the Indo-US nuclear deal issue.
"Lok Sabha is not prorogued and it will be the continuation of the earlier session," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi told reporters after the meeting. He sidestepped questions whether it would be the last session of the 14th Lok Sabha.
The schedule for the session has apparently been fixed to accommodate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit in September to UN for the General Assembly. The schedule has been arranged in such a way that there was no possibility of a winter session which normally begins in November.