By Ruma Dubey

The Winter session of the Parliament begins tomorrow, 16^th November and will end of 16^th December. And it holds the promise of being long and cold, frosty and like always will drum up a storm.

Undoubtedly, demonetization will be high of the agenda and most likely, the opposing members will not allow the session to function smoothly. But going by the past track record, the BJP will bull doze through everything – when it has won the war, who cares about the battle? The Govt has already set the ball rolling for demonetization and all opposing members know that BJP has scored a huge victory. They will do anything and everything to ensure no more accolades come their way! That’s the basic job of the opposition anyway!

The Monsoon Session, which had begun on 18^th July ended on 12^th August and a quick look at what that session had managed to achieve:

• 15 Bills (14 legislative) were passed and another 15 Bills (14 legislative) were introduced; 1 Bill was put up for withdrawal.
• The session had 20 sittings, during which various Bills were passed, including a Constitutional Amendment Bill enabling the levy of a Goods and Services Tax (GST).
• The main debates were about inflation, violence in Kashmir, atrocities on Dalits and the draft education policy – 40% of the time was taken over by non-legislative debate.
• Lok Sabha worked for 101% of the scheduled hours and Rajya Sabha for 96% - this implies that lesser time was lost to disruptions.
• During the session, both Houses sat for extra hours on most days - Out of 20 days, Lok Sabha sat beyond its scheduled time on 11 days, while Rajya Sabha sat beyond its scheduled time on 14 days.
• Both Houses witnessed one of the most productive Question Hours since 2004.

The Winter session will have a total of 22 sittings. The agenda for legislation includes 10 Bills pending for consideration and passing.  The government plans to introduce 9 new Bills. Let’s take a quick look at some of the important Bills to be tabled in current Winter session:

• The Consumer Protection Bill
• The Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014
• The Mental Health Care Bill, 2013
• The Employee's Compensation (Amendment) Bill, 2016
• The Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016
• The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill, 2016
• The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016- It proposes that llegal migrants fromAfghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan from specified religious groups (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian) will be eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.
• The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016 - Vests all rights, titles and interests over enemy property in an office of the central government.
• The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 - Makes giving a bribe an offence and modifies the definition of taking a bribe. Requires prior sanction to prosecute former officials.
• The Whistle Blowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015
• The Central Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2016 - facilitates levy of tax on intra-state supply of goods or services.
• The Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2016 - facilitates levy of tax on inter-state supply of goods or services.
• The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation for Loss of Revenue) Bill, 2016
• The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2016
• The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016
• The Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2016

Two very interesting Bills are tabled for withdrawal:

The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016 - Changes the names of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras High Courts to Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai High Courts, respectively. Thank God this has been put up for withdrawal! The other bill - The Participation of Workers in Management Bill, 1990 had provided for participation of workers in management at shop floor, establishment and board of management levels.