The Monsoon session of Parliament will commence from July 18 and end on August 10, the Cabinet Committee of Parliamentary Affairs recommended today.

The CCPA, chaired by Home Minister Rajanth Singh, met today to recommend the dates. The President will now formally convene the session.

The session will have nearly 18 sittings, Parliamentary Affairs minister Ananth Kumar told reporters.

Some key bills which are lined up for the session include the Constitution (123rd) Amendment Bill, 2017, the Triple Talaq bill, Transgender Bill, the Indian Arbitration Council Act, 2017, and the Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

The election to the post of Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha would also be held during the session as the term of P. J. Kurien is ending this month.

This session is crucial as the Budget session, the previous session of Parliament, was mostly a washout. The session saw utilisation of just 1 per cent of its allotted time in Lok Sabha and 6 per cent in the Rajya Sabha.

Senior IAS officers at the level of secretary and additional secretary will soon be assessed on their attitude towards weaker sections of the society, among other qualities. In this regard, Ministry of draft appraisal form has already been finalised by the Ministry of Personnel.

In addition to this, the officers’ annual performance appraisal report will subsume details on their ability to take timely and effective decision, especially in complex, ambiguous and critical situations.

The draft form reads that the procedure to assess the IAS officers will require asking them to comment in not more than 50 words on their attributes like ‘ownership of responsibilities with courage to stand up for what is right, innovativeness, track record of delivery and ability to lead a team with coordination and collaboration’.

The personnel ministry has already written to chief secretaries of all the state governments and the Union territories suggesting changes in the annual performance appraisal forms for the officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), and they have been asked to give their comments and views about the proposal by June 28. The Centre’s communique makes it clear that in case no reply is received within the stipulated time then it will be presumed that the state government has no objection to the proposed amendments.

There will be two separate forms- – form one, which is meant for all the IAS officers except those at the level of secretary and additional secretary, and form two that will be for secretary and additional secretary or equivalent officers.

For all IAS officers, other than those at the level of secretary and additional secretary, the appraisal will be on their “integrity” in general.

Those at the secretary and additional secretary level will be assessed on both “financial integrity” and “moral integrity”, according to the draft forms.

All bureaucrats will have to specify at least four domain assignments like social development, internal affairs and defence, industry and trade, public finance and financial management, natural resource management and personnel and general administration, governance reforms and regulatory system, among others.

Except those at the top level, all other IAS officers will have to send an updated CV, including details of additional qualifications acquired/training programmes attended/ publications/special assignments undertaken, in a prescribed proforma, to the cadre controlling authority once in five years so that the records remain updated.

According to the personnel ministry, there are 5,004 IAS officers working across the India.