NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday extended the first session of the current Lok Sabha till August 7 at the request of the government. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi urged the Speaker to extend the proceedings of the House so that more than 20 pending bills can be passed. Birla then announced an extension of the session. The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha began with the swearing-in of members on 17th June and was scheduled to conclude on 26th July.
The government's request came two days after the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting, which decided to proceed with the proceedings of Parliament. After the passage of three anti-divorce bills in the Lok Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi said that 17 bills are pending so that we want the session to be extended till the 7th of August. On this, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said that the session is extended till 7th August, 2019. Sources said, the decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs.
The meeting was held on July 23, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Minister S.K. Jaishankar was also involved. Replying to a media query on the Union Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar had said that the opposition has always been demanding that the day of The Parliament meeting should be more. He had said that the Opposition parties always wanted that the Parliament should meet 100 days in a year. "Now we are going to do it," he said, adding that the session began on June 17 and was scheduled to run until July 26.
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