Rajya Sabha chairman Dhankhar meets opposition parties, seeks methods to curb House disruption

New Delhi: Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday held a meeting with the MPs of nine parties on the eve of the resumption of the second half of the Budget Session of the Parliament and sought methods to curb disruption in the functioning of the House, sources said.

The second half of the Budget Session is set to begin on March 13 and will go on till April 6. Among those leaders who were present at the meeting at Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas in the national capital were Leader of the House Piyush Goyal, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, DMK MP M Shanmugam, AAP MP Sanjay Singh, Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav, BRS MP K Keshava Rao, TDP MP K Ravindra Kumar, JD(U) Ram Nath Thakur, Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) Sanjay Raut.

According to sources, RS Chairman Dhankhar, during the meeting asked, "How should we curb disruption and disturbance in the house?"
"Can we allow anyone free fall of the information under the protection given in article 105 that gives immunity to the members for the words spoken in the house?" sources further quoted the Vice President as saying.

The Opposition parties will hold a joint meeting tomorrow at Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge's office on the Parliament premises to chalk out the strategy for the remaining Budget Session.

Meanwhile, the focus of the second part of the Budget Session which resumes on 13th March will be on the demand for grants and passage of the Union Budget. The government is also likely to bring in legislation for passage in this part.

As per the records, about 26 Bills are currently pending in the Rajya Sabha and close to 9 in the Lok Sabha for passage.
Two Bills - The Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2022 were referred to a Joint Committee by the government last Winter Session and they are currently being examined by the panel. It is known through sources that the CP Joshi-led panel discussing the Multi-State Cooperative Bill will be presenting its report in Parliament in the upcoming session. This panel has completed its discussion on the Bill and is likely to adopt its draft report on 13th March.

The government will also list The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which was scrutinised by a Joint Committee of Parliament.

It is also known through the sources that the government may bring the keenly awaited Personal Data Protection Bill in the upcoming session. This Bill is likely to be cleared by the Union Cabinet soon.
Amongst the Bills pending in the Rajya Sabha, three Bills have already been passed by Lok Sabha including The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2019 , The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022 and The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Fifth Amendment) Bill, 2022. (ANI)