5-day long Special Session of Parliament begins today; Session to begin in existing building, shift to new building tomorrow

The five-day-long Special Parliament Session will begin today. The Parliamentary proceedings will begin as usual in the old  Building today and from tomorrow, it will shift to the new Parliament Building, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 28th of May this year. Ahead of the special session, the government held an all-party meeting of the floor leaders in New Delhi yesterday.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the Deputy Leader of the House in Lok Sabha, Union Minister and leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi represented the government in the meeting. Several leaders of the Opposition parties including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Congress, Farooq Abdullah of National Conference, TMC’s Derek O’Brien, Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singh, Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party and RJD’s Manoj Kumar Jha were also present in the meeting.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said, 51 leaders of 34 parties participated in the meeting. He said the session will start in the existing parliament building tomorrow and it will be shifted to the new building tomorrow.

During the meeting, several opposition parties made a strong pitch for the passage of the Women Reservation Bill during the session. The bill seeks to reserve one third of all seats for women in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. In the meeting, the leaders also paid tributes to Security forces personnel, who laid their lives in Jammu and Kashmir during the recent encounter. 

Earlier yesterday, Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar hoisted the National Flag at New Parliament Building. The flag was hoisted at the top of Gaja Dwar of the building. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also graced the occasion, besides other dignitaries including  Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Harivansh, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, and Leaders of Political Parties in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.