Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel called on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought his party Congress’ cooperation in smooth functioning of Parliament in the coming monsoon session beginning July 18.

He told Manmohan Singh that 68 bills are pending in the Lok Sabha and 40 in the Rajya Sabha, thus making it imperative for all political parties to cooperate in passing these important bills the 18-day monsoon session.

Goel, who will also be meeting a number of leaders from opposition parties as a part of this effort in the days to come, said that the government was ready to discuss “any issue” on the floor of the House and urged all political parties to extend their support for smooth running of the Parliament.

After the meeting, he told reporters that Manmohan Singh welcomed the initiative of reaching out to various opposition leaders and members for running the House and noted that it was the responsibility of both the ruling and opposition parties to let both the Houses work smoothly.

The last Budget session was a complete wash-out. The productivity of Rajya Sabha was only 8 per cent while that of Lok Sabha was only 4 per cent.

“For this upcoming session, accusations and counter-accusations need to give way to cooperation in letting the Parliament function constructively,” Goel said after the meeting.

He added that important pending Bills such as the Muslim Marriage (Protection of Marriage Rights) Bill, 2017; the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017; and the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 need to be passed during the session “in the larger interest of the nation”.

Goel also expressed hope that the election of a new Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha will be held in the House with consensus.

The government also needs to pass bills on six Ordinances — the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, 2018; the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018; the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018; the Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018; the National Sports University Ordinance, 2018; and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018.