New Delhi, Dec 15: The Winter Session of Parliament will convene today and conclude on January 5. During a total of 14 sittings over a duration of 22 days, both the Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, will take up 25 Bills, including GST compensation to states, for consideration and passing.

A day ahead of the Parliament winter session, on Thursday, the Central government said that they will discuss various important issues including the Muslim women rights and Goods and Services Tax (GST). Main issues in the session will be supplementary demand for grants, Constitutional amendment Article 123 (Constitutional status to backward classes), Muslim women Right on Marriage 2017 bill. Three ordinances including GST compensation to states will also be discussed.

An all-party meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday to chalk out the strategy of the winter session, where he appealed to everyone for a successful Parliament session, an ANI report said.

Earlier speaking to the media, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Ananthkumar noted that it is not unprecedented that the schedule of the Parliament Session has been decided so as to avoid any overlap with the Assembly Elections in the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. "This practice has been followed on many occasions by different governments in the past," he added. Ananthkumar appealed to all political parties for fruitful and constructive discussions on important Bills and ensure smooth functioning of both the Houses of the Parliament.

Answering a question on Triple Talaq and the National Commission for Backward Classes, he stated that it is a strong desire of the people of India that Parliament should legislate on these two important issues and the Government is committed to respond to this desire.

Three Bills are to be taken up in the Winter session to replace three Ordinances viz.,

1. The Goods & Services Tax (Compensation to States) Ordinance, 2017 (promulgated on 02.09.17)

2. Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017

3. Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017

Parliament will also discuss the Supplementary Demands for Grants in this Winter Session.

Last year, the month-long winter session began on 16 November and ended on 16 December, with 22 sittings of both the Houses. The previous monsoon session saw 67 per cent productivity in Lok Sabha and 72 per cent in Rajya Sabha, according to PRS Legislative Research.