Both the houses of Parliament are heading for a five day break beginning from 22nd December to 26 December as they have cancelled their sittings scheduled for Monday and Wednesday next week.

Rajya Sabha secretariat has issued an official notice that it will not transact any business on Monday and Wednesday, 24 and 26 December next week. It means that the house will resume work after a break of five consecutive days beginning from 22nd December and extending till 26th of the month.

According to a circular issued by Saket Kumar, a deputy secretary in the Rajya Sabha secretariat, two sittings of the house scheduled for Monday and Wednesday, 24 and 26 December have been cancelled and all the concerned public authorities including President’s Secretariat, Vice President’s Secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office, Supreme Court and Cabinet Secretariat have been officially informed about the decision.

Lok Sabha, has not yet formally announced the decision to cancel its sittings scheduled for Monday and Wednesday, however, official sources seeking anonymity, confirmed to financialexpress.com that the Lok Sabha secretariat will also most likely cancel its sittings scheduled for Monday and Wednesday next week and a decision was expected today or tomorrow.

Apparently, the sittings of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha have been cancelled to enable members and other staff to celebrate the festival of Christmas as it is falling during the middle of the week.

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Cancellation of sittings of Rajya Sabha and also of Lok Sabha, if it is announced today or tomorrow, will allow out of station members to visit their families and friends to celebrate the festival and then resume work from Thursday i.e. 27 December.

Earlier, it was a well established tradition to start the winter session some time in the second or third week of November and adjourn or prorogue the house, as the case may be, before the Christmas and year end holidays, enabling members of parliaments, political leaders and bureaucrats to go on extended year end vacations in India and abroad.

However, last year, Prime Minister Modi’s government decided to continue with the winter session in the month of January as well, upsetting the year end vacation plan of several high profile people.

This year too, the NDA government has announced winter session schedule overlapping the months of December and January.

On the first day of winter session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made an impassioned plea to the opposition parties to rise above the narrow party politics and work for the issues of national importance in larger public interest.

He has said that that the government was willing to discuss any issue in both the houses of Parliament and he was willing to sit for extra time to finish important legislative agenda.