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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Tonga, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, currently on a visit to Tonga, has launched an India-assisted solar project run by two women engineers in the Pacific island nation. The Kolomotu’a project inaugurated Thursday will power in a sustainable way the remote islands in the archipelago nation in south of Pacific. The two women solar engineers - Halatoa Siutiti and Leohau Siale - are hailed as “pioneers” of solar energy in the Pacific region and have been trained as solar engineers in India's Barefoot College in Rajasthan, Meira Kumar said in her speech at the inauguration ceremony. The solar power plant is partly run by a women community group in Tonga. “I commend the Kolomotu’a community and the Women’s Community Group for undertaking to implement this project and wish them success in their laudable endeavour,” Meira Kumar said, according to a press statement from the speaker's camp office here. She hoped that the solar project for which India has provided the necessary equipment would be instrumental in achieving the goals of sustainable rural development and women empowerment. Meira Kumar said Pacific island countries were faced with the challenge of ...
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New Delhi/Kolkata, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and other Parliamentarians on Monday offered floral tributes to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to celebrate the 115th birth anniversary of the freedom fighter. The brief ceremony was observed in the Central hall of the Parliament, media reports said. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani and Congress leader Girija Vyas were present at the event. Netaji is considered to be one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement. West Bengal on Monday celebrated Netaji's 115th birthday anniversary by paying rich tribute to the leader through a number of cultural programmes orgainised in city and other parts of state. Hosts of leaders cutting across the party line paid homage to Netaji by garlanding his statue at Red road in central Kolkata. Forwad Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh was first to lay the floral wreath on Netaji's statue which was followed by other leaders, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamanta Banerjee. Besides, various schools of Kolkata organized cultural programmes to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji. Administration of the different districts also observed the day. ...
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New Delhi, The logjam at the Indian Parliament continued on Thursday as both the houses were adjourned for the eighth consecutive day over the FDI issue. The opposition parties and certain section of the key allies of the ruling United progressive Alliance (UPA) government kept protesting against the central government's decision to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail, which ultimately stalled the normal proceedings of the house. In the Lok Sabha, some Members of Parliament (MP) of Trinamool Congress came to the Well and started shouting slogans against FDI on Thursday, while the opposition demanded a roll back of FDI. The Lok Sabha was disrupted immediately on Thursday after Speaker Meira Kumar made obituary reference to former member Harish Kumar Gangawar of the Congress Party and read out a message to mark the World AIDS Day. Meanwhile, the government has made their stance clear on the FDI issue that they would not roll back the decision taken by cabinet to allow FDI in retail, media reports said. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) members from Tamil Nadu also disrupted the Parliament as they demanded for the implementation of the ...
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