Winter session: Govt calls all-party meet tomorrow

Ravi S Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 12

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar will convene an all-party meeting on December 14 ahead of the winter session of Parliament.

Also, on the same day, Opposition leaders will hold a meeting at Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s office in Parliament to prepare their strategy for the session.

The minister said the much-delayed session will be held from December 15 to January 5. December 25 and 26 will be Christmas holidays during the 14-day session.

The session is expected to witness heavy fireworks as the Congress would try to corner the Narendra Modi government over a range of issues. The Congress, which has described the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a hasty step, is expected to come out hard at the government over the issue. Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi is also expected to launch a multi-pronged attack on the government.

The Congress had accused the NDA government of running away from discussion over what it described as “scams”, including the Rafale deal. The Left parties have already raised the ante against the government’s reported move to introduce the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017, and made it known they will oppose it.

CPI chief Sudhakar Reddy objected to the Bill today, saying if adopted by Parliament, it will take away the depositors’ money in banks in order to bail out the banks hit by huge corporate defaulters.