NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India parliamentary party leader Gurudas Dasgupta has said that he would move a private members bill in the winter session of Parliament pressing for a Constitutional amendment making it mandatory for the House to meet at least 100 days in a year.

Concerned over the reduction in the number of days Parliament meets each year, Mr. Dasgupta has been in the forefront of raising the issue ahead of and during each session for the last few years.

Recently, Mr. Dasgupta had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue. The CPI leader told The Hindu that he would now move a private member's bill during the winter session starting on November 22.

In the letter, he said besides his own request, even the Speakers' conference a few years back had suggested that Parliament should meet annually for at least 100 days. This year, Mr. Dasgupta calculated that the House would be able to meet for 80 days.

"Weakening the system"

"I believe that the Government headed by you will do well to consider whether shortening of the Parliament session does have a pernicious effect on the parliamentary system.

In my view, reducing the days of Parliament objectively leads to weakening of the parliamentary system of which we are all proud... " the letter said.

The move to bring a private member's bill can effectively bind the Government in case it is carried.

The CPI leader, who also heads the All India Trade Union Congress, said the Government had decided to call a meeting of Labour Ministers.

The move comes in the backdrop of the AITUC's decision to hold a protest rally on November 23 to highlight labour law violations in the country and the strike by trade unions on December 14.

He said at the last meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to the Labour Ministry, it was decided to conduct a study of the cases of violation of labour laws in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

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