Hoping for constructive session: PM; Lok Sabha adjourned

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 15

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he was hoping for a constructive winter session of Parliament starting on Friday and appealed to the opposition to engage with the Government on important issues concerning public good.

“The Government will bring to Parliament many issues with far-reaching consequences. We expect a constructive session and innovative suggestions to enhance national good,” Modi said in his customary speech at the start of the session.

The PM earlier spoke of the ill-effects of global warming and climate change which had pushed the winters behind. “We still can’t feel the winter due to climate change and global warming but the winter session is starting. We hope this session starting in 2017 and ending in 2018 will prove productive for the country, and discussions will be such as would strengthen democracy and aid the well-being of common people,” said the PM with the Congress-led opposition gunning for him for alleged disparaging remarks against ex-PM Manmohan Singh whom Modi had accused of conspiring with Pakistan to impact Gujarat results.

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The Congress has demanded an apology from the PM but the Government is in no mood to relent and has said it will present facts.

The Lok Sabha, meanwhile, was adjourned for the day after the PM introduced his new cabinet and council of ministers and after obituary references by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in memory of sitting and ex-MPs who passed away in the inter-session period.
Obituaries were read for sitting members Sultan Ahmed, Tasleemuddin and Chand Nath and ex-members Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, Vikram Mahajan, PC Burman, Amal Datta, Ram Singh, R Kishing and Dhanraj Singh.

Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi and outgoing Congress chief Sonia Gandhi attended the proceedings.