New Delhi: The Winter Session of parliament, that was originally scheduled to run up to December 29, came to an early close on Friday, December 23, with both the Houses adjourned sine die.It has been reported that, on Monday, December 19, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had chaired a meeting with opposition leaders in which they demanded that the session be curtailed in view of the upcoming festival season and the fact that many of the MPs were desirous of being in their constituencies at the end of the year.The meeting was attended by Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, T.R. Baalu of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Sudip Bandopadhyay of Trinamool Congress, and Pinaki Mishra of Biju Janata Dal, apart from Parliamentary Affairs minister Pralhad Joshi and Minister of State Arjun Ram Meghwal.During the meeting, it was reported, when members demanded that the Winter Session be cut short it was suggested by the Speaker that the Budget Session be extended by as nearly as many days to cover for lost time. This suggestion reportedly found favour with opposition leaders.The session, which began on December 7, transacted some business but the proceedings since December 13 were largely overshadowed by attempts by the opposition to have a discussion on the border situation with China after reports of a skirmish at the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh.No such discussion was allowed, and on successive days, opposition MPs repeatedly raised slogans and staged walkouts over the issue.The government introduced five of the 16 new planned Bills while four bills, which were passed by one House in the previous session, were cleared by the other during this session.While the session witnessed passage of the amendments to the Constitution Scheduled Tribes (Order), 1950, the Bills that were passed included the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021, the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and the Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019.Today, before adjourning the Lok Sabha sine die, Birla said that the Lower House recorded 79% productivity rate.Meanwhile, Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairperson Jagdeep Dhankar said the Upper House had recorded a “102% productivity rate.” Dhankar also spoke about the necessity to take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.