New Delhi, Nov 30: The Winter Session of Parliament begins Monday with the government poised to introduce landmark legislation opening India's civil nuclear sector to private participation, following the NDA's decisive victory in Bihar that has strengthened its reform agenda.

The three-week session, spread over 15 sittings and concluding on December 19, follows the near-total washout of the Monsoon Session and carries the clear imprint of the Bihar result, with the treasury benches determined to get a slew of Bills passed.

At the centre of the agenda is the Atomic Energy Bill, 2025, which will lay down fresh rules for the production, development and regulation of atomic energy while carefully allowing private players into power generation under strict state oversight.

Joining it on the priority list are the Higher Education Commission of India Bill that aims to give universities greater autonomy through a single, transparent regulator; a National Highways amendment for quicker and cleaner land acquisition, tweaks to company and LLP laws to further ease doing business, and the sweeping Securities Markets Code, 2025 that will merge and modernise three existing laws governing capital markets.

Changes to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, two carry-over bills from the previous session, and the first supplementary demands for grants complete the packed legislative calendar. One proposed bill has already been shelved: after fierce resistance from allies and opposition alike, the government has stepped back from its plan to let the President directly frame regulations for the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had called an all-party meeting on Sunday in the hope of securing smoother floor coordination and avoiding a repeat of the last session’s chaos.

The opposition, however, is gearing up for a sharp offensive. It intends to corner the government over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls across twelve states and Union territories, which many parties describe as a targeted deletion drive, and also over the continuing air pollution crisis choking the national capital.

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With the Bihar triumph still fresh and both sides digging in, the coming weeks promise a combustible mix of landmark reform bills, heated political confrontations, and the faint hope that, this time, Parliament might actually manage to pass laws.

(IANS)