New Delhi, The government on Wednesday claimed that political parties were in the know of the move to refer the Lokpal bill to a select committee and that leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley was consulted on its composition. "The committee was drawn up after consultation," parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal said. The government claimed that there might have been a gap in communication within BJP as party MPs protested the move while Jaitley sat without intervening. Jaitley contested the government's suggestion that he was on board, saying that he had only been informed about the move to refer the bill to a select committee. "I was not consulted, the ministers merely told me about the government's plan," he said. He also said that when Bansal met him, he had told the minister that he intended to "raise objections with relation to the incompetent amendment to refer the bill to a select committee". He pointed out that in the House, he had asked the government to be upfront about its intent rather than getting a Samajwadi Party MP to move the amendment. Speaking to the media, Bansal said all parties were consulted over the composition of the ...
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New Delhi, With the government sending the controversial Lokpal Bill to a Rajya Sabha select committee for further scrutiny and discussion on Monday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has accused the former of not being sincere in its efforts to pass anti-graft proposal. "This has become quiet clear, that the intentions of the government over bringing the Ombudsman (Bill) were not correct since the very beginning. The government has once again exposed its corrupt face protecting corrupt people," Naqvi told media here. Expressing displeasure over sending the bill to a select committee, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said: "Any search proposal for select committee can come only and only by the minister in charge who is in possession of the entire proposal. It could not have come from anyone else." "This kind of procedure was most unwarranted. We deeply regret it, and also condemn it. The present consideration is also permissible in terms of Article 252 of the Constitution, where such considerations are permissible only when two state assemblies empower the Rajya Sabha to consider such a proposal," he added. Communist Party of India (CPI) ...
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New Delhi, The government Monday released the much-awaited white paper on black money, which makes a strong pitch for setting up the Lokpal and Lokayuktas but carries no official estimate of the illicit money stashed by Indians abroad. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tabled the white paper in the Lok Sabha. The paper carries no estimates on the quantum of money stashed abroad, but quotes figures released by different agencies. "There are no reliable estimates of black money generation or accumulation, neither is there an accurate well-accepted methodology for making such estimation," the paper said. It pointed out that among the estimates made so far, there is no uniformity, unanimity, or consensus about the best methodology or approach to be used for this purpose. "There have also been wide variations in the figures reported, which further serves to highlight the limitations of the different methods adopted." The paper made a strong pitch for setting up the Lokpal and Lokayuktas to effectively deal with the menace of black money and other corrupt practices. In the foreword to the report, Mukherjee pointed out that in this past year the government has ...
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New Delhi, Asserting that the Central Government is not serious about passing a strong Lokpal Bill, social activist Arvind Kejriwal has said Team Anna would decide its future course of action after the budget session of parliament ends. "We are waiting for the parliament session to get over. Our future strategy and agitation will be announced after that," Kejriwal told media here. "We do doubt their (government) intentions. When the budget session was so big then why did they not get the bill earlier? Why on the last day? They could have got it 15-30 days earlier, so defiantly there is a doubt over their intentions," he added. Earlier, former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and Team Anna member Kiran Bedi has said the Central Government is not serious about endorsing an effective Lokpal Bill, since it would be like sounding the death knell for corrupt politicians. "The Lokpal Bill is a very tough law for people who are corrupt and they also happen to be in power. They also know that there is enough proof against them. It will be very difficult for them as they will be investigated and like former telecom minister A Raja they will go to jail because whistleblowers ...
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New Delhi, Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday tabled a White Paper on black money in Parliament, providing information on black money parked abroad, as promised to the House during a debate on the Finance Bill last week. "I will try to give all the relevant and possible information," Mukherjee had said in the Lok Sabha, while promising to bring the White Paper in the on-going Budget Session. The Opposition, led by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accusing the government of going slow on the black money probe. However, there are indications that the White Paper might not carry all the information about the unaccounted for money lying overseas, as the government appointed expert committees are expected to submit their reports in July or August. "In respect of estimates of black money, three institutions are studying it independently and they will give their reports at the end of an 18-month period, and that period is coming to a close around July or August," Mukherjee had said, while replying to the argument raised by senior BJP leader L K Advani the Lok Sabha last Tuesday. The White Paper, however, is likely to contain the report of an official ...
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New Delhi, With the Budget session set to conclude on Tuesday, the much-debated Lokpal Bill, instead of being brought in the Rajya Sabha, could be referred to a Joint Select Committee amid lack of consensus on its key provisions. "A decision will be taken tomorrow", a Union minister involved in the process said when asked whether the bill would go to a Joint Select Committee or Select Committee. When a Bill comes up before a House for discussion, it may be referred to a Select Committee of the House or a Joint Committee of the two Houses. The Select or the Joint Select Committee considers the Bill clause by clause just as the two Houses do. A senior Congress leader, who declined to be identified, said the possibility of the bill being referred to a Joint Select Committee, cannot be ruled out. Reports said that in the absence of consensus on key provisions of the legislation including the one dealing with Lokpal's superintendence over CBI appears to be deterring the government from bringing the bill in the Rajya Sabha this week. The bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha. Uncertainty hung over the bill coming up in the Upper House in the current session with ...
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Ahmedabad/ Ghaziabad, Former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and Team Anna member Kiran Bedi has said the Central Government is not serious about endorsing an effective Lokpal Bill, since it would be like sounding the death knell for corrupt politicians. "The Lokpal Bill is a very tough law for people who are corrupt and they also happen to be in power. They also know that there is enough proof against them. It will be very difficult for them as they will be investigated and like former telecom minister A Raja they will go to jail because whistleblowers will gather enough proof against them. So this will not be enacted easily," Bedi told media here. "It will be enacted when all of us stand together with Anna Hazare because these politicians count the number of people," she added. Echoing similar sentiment, Team Anna member Manish Sisodia has said that an effective and strong Lokpal Bill couldn't be expected from a cabinet that has corrupt ministers. "How can a country hope for a tough anti-graft law from a cabinet which has 16 ministers who have charges of corruption against them? We have absolutely no hope from this cabinet," said Sisodia. He also said that ...
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New Delhi, Union Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natarajan on Monday said that there are 668 Protected Areas (including 102 National Parks, 515 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 47 Conservation Reserves, 4 Community Reserves) and 198 Zoos including 23 circuses in the country. In Lok Sabha, the Minister said that the financial assistance for development and upkeep of Protected Areas is provided under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of ‘Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats’ and ‘Project Tiger’. Briefing the members further the Minister added that the Ministry has modified the existing Centrally Sponsored Schemes by adding more components and activities for providing better protection and conservation to wildlife and its habitats. For the protection and improvement of zoos across the country, the Central Zoo Authority has formulated detailed guidelines for the scientific management of zoos for adoption and implementation by the zoo ...
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New Delhi, Members in the Lok Sabha Monday united in criticising cartoons in NCERT books allegedly denigrating political leaders, particularly the one on B.R. Ambedkar, with the government promising that all objectionable material would be removed and the role of NCERT advisers probed. "We ordered withdrawal of the Ambedkar cartoon April 26... the role of the NCERT advisers would be probed," Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told the Lok Sabha after the members expressed their concern over the issue during zero hour. "The government appreciates the concern of the house... I have reviewed the class XI book on political science and found many cartoons in it were offensive... we will ensure that only educationally appropriate material goes into NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) books," he said, adding that distribution of the books has been stopped. Sibal also said NCERT advisers Suhas Palshikar and Yogendra Yadav had resigned over the issue. Earlier, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used the opportunity to demand Sibal's removal. "Of late, I have noticed a tendency among some people to denigrate politicians, ...
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New Delhi, The Lok Sabha was briefly adjourned Tuesday with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking a reply from the government on the role of Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who is alleged to have helped his son get financial benefits in a telecom deal when he was the finance minister in 2006. As soon as members assembled in the morning, some BJP frontbenchers rose to protest, demanding suspension of question hour to discuss the issue. Some BJP MPs staged protests near Speaker Meira Kumar's podium and disrupted the crucial question hour. The speaker first tried to restore peace in the house asking protesting MPs to go back to their seats. As the MPs intensified their protests, Meira Kumar adjourned the house till noon. Opposition MPs cited Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's allegations that Chidambaram had delayed permission for the sale of Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis in 2006 when he was finance minister so that his son, Karthi, was financially benefited. "The BJP is going to raise the matter very seriously in both the houses. The government is not coming with true facts pertaining to the deliberate delays in the Aircel-Mexis deal because of the interest of ...
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New Delhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar today directed Ministers to be concise in their answers to the queries raised in the House. The instruction came during the Question Hour when Members were asking supplementaries to the various questions relating to the Ministries of Health and Finance. One of the Members wanted to know whether the Government was going to put a ban on tobacco product gutka in view of its cancer causing effects. Another wanted to know why the Kalazar drugs were so much in shortage in Bihar and other states. Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad though expressed concern over the harmful effect of Gutka and said there should be a ban but could not give a categorical assurance. He rather recounted the various kinds of assistance given to the states for the prevention of tobacco related disease, cardiac diseases and ...
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New Delhi, The eight Congress MPs suspended from the Lok Sabha by their party for disrupting the House over the Telangana issue blocked the main entrance of parliament for nearly half an hour Thursday. Ponnam Prabhakar, Madhu Yaskhi Goud, M. Jagannath, K.R.G. Reddy, G. Viveknanda, Balram Naik, Sukender Reddy Gutha and S. Rajaiah sat on the steps of the Parliament House just before the day's sitting began at 11 a.m. Other MPs were thus forced to use other gates to enter the building. The MPs held placards which read "Honour Your commitment, Give separate Telangana state" and "Fulfil your commitment, Honour Telangana sentiment", and raised slogans supporting their demands. They also appealed for peace in Andhra Pradesh saying that a Telangana would be created soon. "I appeal to students not to commit suicide because Telangana will be created soon. They should realise their dreams," Jagannath said. The MPs had Wednesday too staged a protest in the Parliament House ...
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New Delhi, Eight Congress MPs from Telangana were suspended from the Lok Sabha for four days for disrupting the House, marking in what marks the clearest-ever indication of the party's reluctance to accept the demand for a separate state. The government led the move to suspend the MPs after they continued to disrupt proceedings on the opening day, frustrating the ambition to make the most of the second leg of the Budget session to transact business and dispel the perception of governance stalemate.After the sloganeering Telangana MPs rushed to the well with placards in the morning defying the disapproval of a visibly upset Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal moved the motion in the afternoon session seeking a four-day suspension. The motion was approved unanimously even as the members continued to squat in the well, forcing closure of the House for the day. The MPs are Ponnam Prabhakar, Madhu Yaskhi, Sukender Reddy, Rajagopal Reddy, S Rajaiah, M Jagannath, Balram Naik and G Vivekananda. The Congress said the decision to suspend the MPs should not be seen as the party's stand on statehood. AICC spokesman Manish Tewari said, "It is a ...
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New Delhi, The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday said the government seems to have decided against any more reforms as the prime minister's economic advisor Kaushik Basu had said reforms were not possible till the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Basu, who is accompanying Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on a visit to the US, had said that post-2014 "you would see a rush of important reforms" and after 2015, India would be one of the "fastest growing" economies of the world. Reacting to this, BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy told IANS: "It is an indication that the government has conclusively taken a call that no more reforms can take place in the UPA II." Rudy said allies were no more supporting the government on anything, whether it was on bills or the "burden" of charges against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) like graft and price rise. "Major alliance partners will not like to go with the Congress any more...the burden of charges on the UPA government, be it graft or price rise, allies are no more with them," Rudy said. "The trust in alliance partner has waned...It sounds of impending elections," he said. Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment meet in ...
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New Delhi, Taking a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma said one of the problems facing Indian democracy is that it's not binding on the PM to be a member of the Lok Sabha. Singh is a member of the Rajya Sabha. "We must amend the constitution to ensure that only an Lok Sabha member will be a PM. The most important duty of the Lok Sabha is to produce a PM. A Prime Minister from the Rajya Sabha cannot vote for his own government if he is not a member of the Lok Sabha, and this is an absurd situation," said Sangma, who is with the NCP, which is a part of the UPA. Sangma said he was unable to recall any period in the history of Indian democracy when a PM remained in office for so long without being elected to the Lok Sabha. This, he said, has diminished the PM's office. He also said that given the increasingly chaotic scenes in both the Houses, it might become necessary to reconsider live telecast of the proceedings. Although it was Sangma who introduced live coverage of the proceedings, he said that there may be good reasons to believe that it makes the members play to their galleries and create ruckus to show how effective they ...
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New Delhi, Both houses of parliament were on Friday adjourned till April 24 for the customary break in the budget session. While the Lok Sabha ended with the issue of separate statehood of Telangana paralysing the house for the fifth consecutive day, the Rajya Sabha was peaceful, bidding farewell to retiring members and getting adjourned due to lack of enough members on the last day before the parliament takes a break. In the Lok Sabha, trouble over Telangana and the central government's "insensitivity" to the demand erupted as soon as the house convened at 11 a.m. MPs from the Congress, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) shouted slogans of "Jai Telangana", urging Speaker Meira Kumar to adjourn the house. The dragging demand for a separate state to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh has seen at least two people committing suicide in the last few days. According to MPs from the region, there have been nearly 600 suicides so far. The MPs alleged that the central government was insensitive towards their demand which had driven people to end their lives. The protests continued when the house reassembled at noon, when papers were laid and ...
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New Delhi, Veteran social activist Anna Hazare on Friday urged the Congress-led UPA government to bring a strong and effective Lokpal Bill. He said that the Lokpal Bill that the government is trying to bring out will not be 'effective' in putting a 'brake' on corruption. "The Lokpal Bill of the government will not be effective at all. It will fail to put a brake on corruption," he said. Hazare said that he will sit on fast at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar on March 25 for a strong and effective Lokpal Bill. The Gandhian activist urged the government to bring out the bill before Lok Sabha elections in 2014, else he will start a strong agitation in demand for it. "The government has already seen the results in the five states where results of the Assembly polls were declared. If they do not bring a strong Lokpal Bill by 2014 then the result in 2014 elections will also be bad," Hazare said. Meanwhile, an all party meeting of the Rajya Sabha members that was called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence on Friday ended without reaching any consensus on the Lokpal Bill issue. The PM met the Rajya Sabha members at his residence for over an hour since 12 noon ...
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New Delhi, Newly appointed railway minister Mukul Roy announced a rollback in rail fare hike except first AC and second AC in Lok Sabha. Saying it was important to run railways economically and safely, Roy announced the rollback. Mukul Roy said he intends to launch an aggressive drive to mop up resources for the railways. Unmanned level crossing to be removed, he said. Former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi, who had announced an increase in passenger fares across all classes in the Rail Budget on March 14, faced a lok o flak from Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and was forced to resign a few days ...
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New Delhi, After winning its first battle in the Lok Sabha, the UPA government secured a victory in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday on the issue of the fiercely contested National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). The amendments moved by the BJP and the Left to the President's address against the anti-counter terror unit were defeated in the Upper House. The amendments could garner only 82 votes in favour, while 105 members opposed it. The BJP staged a walkout after the vote, expressing unhappiness with the Prime Minister's reply on the issue. Trinamool Congress MPs were absent during the voting, while SP and BSP members voted in favour of the government. On Monday, three amendment motions moved by the opposition on the anti-terror intelligence hub were defeated in the Lok Sabha. The Trinamool Congress, a bitter critic of the NCTC but part of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), lent tacit support to the government in defeating the amendments after its MPs walked out of the house and didn't participate in the voting. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MPs also walked out. The amendments were moved by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Left and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) after ...
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New Delhi, In a major relief to the government over the fiercely contested National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), three amendment motions moved by the opposition on the anti-terror intelligence hub were defeated in the Lok Sabha Monday. The Trinamool Congress, a bitter critic of the NCTC but part of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), lent tacit support to the government in defeating the amendments after its MPs walked out of the house and didn't participate in the voting. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MPs also walked out. The amendments were moved by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Left and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) after Prime Manmohan Singh told the house that the proposed anti-terror agency was crucial in "dealing with terrorism and dealing with it effectively". Manmohan Singh was responding to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to President Pratibha Patil's address. The prime minister in his speech said consultations with state governments over the NCTC would continue and that the anti-terror agency would not be commissioned till a meeting was held with all chief ministers April 16. Not impressed by Manmohan Singh's assurances, BJP's Sushma Swaraj, ...
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