Govt issues whip for all ministers to be present in Parliament during special session

New Delhi, Sep 15: The Central government has directed all its ministers to be present in the House for the five-day special Parliament session starting from September 18-22, said BJP sources.

Earlier, the BJP had issued a three-line whip to all its MPs directing them to be present in Parliament during its special session and support the Central government's stance on several contentious legislative bills.

Generally, during a Parliament session, the government deputes the duty of ministers in both Houses of the Parliament -- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha which is known as roster duty and is assigned only for four hours ie. a minister has to stay in the Parliament House only for four hours as per his roster House duty and after that the roster duty of another minister used to start. 

As per sources, during the special session of Parliament, on behalf of the Central government, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has asked all the ministers to be present in Parliament for all five days.

Earlier, a few days ago, the BJP had separately issued a three-line whip to all its MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, saying that, "Some very important legislative business will be brought up for discussion and passing from September 18 (Monday) to September 22 (Friday) and all BJP MPs are requested to attend the five-day special session. Support the government's stand by compulsorily being present in the Parliament."

The government's decision to assign special roster duty to all its ministers during the special session after issuing a whip to its MPs and directing them to remain present in the Parliament for all five days, has once again fuelled speculations that even though the government has made public the agenda of the session but it wants to bring some major and significant bill or proposal during this session.

Amid the questions being raised by the opposition parties regarding the agenda of the special Parliament session, the Union government had cleared the agenda of the special session on Wednesday. 

During the upcoming special Parliament session, the achievements of 75 years of independence -- right from the Constituent Assembly till date – will be discussed. Along with this, it has also been made clear by the government that along with discussion on the journey of last 75 years, four important bills are also included in the agenda of the special session.

However, generally this is a tentative agenda and the government can add a new agenda to it or remove any of them even during the Parliament session.