Parliament to meet on December 15
CCPA says the 14-day session will commence a day after polling for the Gujarat Assembly elections concludes
NEW DELHI: Parliament will convene on Dec.15 for its winter session which will go on until Jan.5, it was announced on Friday.
The Cabinet Committee on Political AFFAIRS (CCPA) SAID THE 14-DAY session will commence a day after polling for the Gujarat Assembly elections concludes. There will be a two-day holiday for Christmas on DEC.24 AND 25.
While the session is expected to be stormy, the Congress party said it will decide which important issues need to be raised during the session.
“Will decide on issues to be raised; there are issues like GST, demonetisation, J&K, terrorism and Hafiz Saeed set free by Pakistan court. Will raise important issues,” Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, said.
Any setback to the BJP in Gujarat will see its fallout in Parliament, suggesting a weakened government. If the Congress wins extra seats in that state, it will be coming to Parliament with boosted vigour.
However, it will have nothing to be happy about if it loses Himachal Pradesh.
The dates were announced amid criticism from the Opposition parties, which had claimed that the government was intentionally delaying the Winter Session to avoid being on the backfoot at a time when the polls were underway in the states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
The Congress had accused the government of “shying away” from Parliament due to the polls to “hide its corruption and failures.” Sonia Gandhi had targeted the Narendra Modi-led government for “sabotaging” the session in a bid to “escape” constitutional accountability ahead of the Gujarat polls.
Meanwhile, a Right to Information Act request on Friday has revealed that the Delhi Metro lost 300,000 riders every day since the hike of fares in October. Ticket prices went up by Rs10 for every slab of distance covered by a passenger.
The hike came across as steep considering that the last hike was up to 100 per Cent Just ive months AGO.
Delhi Chief Ministerarvind Kejriwal had opposed the move saying that the prices were hiked just a few months ago, in May.
This was overruled by the Centre and prices were hiked between 20 and 50 per cent on Oct.10. It has been disclosed in the RTI that ridership came Down By 11 per Cent From 2.74 million Commuters In SEPTEMBER to 2.42 million in October.
The DMRC had defended the hike after such a short span saying that the input costs had risen over the years and the hike is at par with prices in other cities. The Centre also told Kejriwal that they would not put a hold on the proposed hike unless the Delhi government gives Rs30 billion annually to DMRC as grant-in-aid for the next ive years.
The Delhi High Court had also refused to intervene saying that they do not have any jurisdiction into this matter.
As of now the revised fare structure is: Up to 2 km — Rs 10, 2 to 5 km, Rs 20, 5 to 12 km, Rs 30, 12 to 21 km, Rs 40, 21 to 32 km, Rs 50 AND For Journeys beyond 32 km Rs60. In 2002, the year the metro started, the maximum fare was Rs 8 AND now It Is Rs 60.