Govt: No winter session of Parliament this year due to COVID

As widely speculated, the Central government has announced that there will be no winter session of Parliament this year due to the COVID pandemic. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has said that all parties favour scrapping the session to avoid any Covid spread and jump straight to the budget session in January.

Joshi confirmed this in a letter responding to Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary’s demand for a session to discuss controversial new farm laws that are at the core of massive farmer protests on highways near Delhi, sources reported.

The minister replied that he had held discussions with leaders of all parties and the consensus was not to call a session due to COVID-19.

It is to be noted that the monsoon session was held with all precautions in September amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the parliament standing committees have also been meeting regularly.

The winter session of Parliament usually starts from the last week of November or the first week of December, while the budget session starts from the last week of January and the Union Budget is tabled on February 1. The Constitution mandates that there should not be a gap of six months or more between two sessions.