Winter session of Parliament to commence in October

The winter session of Parliament will be convened on October 17.

This was conveyed to media persons by a communique released by Parliament late Monday evening.

Parliament had last met on August 22-23 to decide the fate of the Manmohan Singh government following the confidence motion brought about by opposition parties, including the Left and BJP.

BJP and Left parties had called for an early session of Parliament and threatened to start privilege proceedings against Dr Singh for misleading the country after details of the gag note written by President Bush to members of the standing committee on foreign relations was leaked to the media.

Other issues that are expected to be taken up for discussion during the monsoon session include the cash-for-vote scam, rising inflation, floods in Bihar and Assam, violence in Azamgarh, riots in Orissa and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.