parliament

The Week in Parliament

THERE was uproar in Rajya Sabha a day after a sting video purportedly showed 11 Trinamool Congress leaders accepting money from a fictitious firm. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury appealed to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to assure that the sting against the TMC leaders will be probed and a House committee will be set up to enquire into it. Lok Sabha witnessed a heated exchange of words between TMC members and other opposition MPs. Raising the matter, Md. Salim said the dignity of the House should be protected as some members were found to be indulging in unethical conduct.

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

ON the occasion on International Women's Day on March 8, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan allowed all women MPs to speak during both question and zero hours while Rajya Sabha gave its women MPs the first right to speak during zero hour. Women MPs were unanimous in seeking passage of the Women Reservation Bill which proposes to reserve 33 percent seats in Lok Sabha and state assemblies at the earliest.

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

ON February 29, the budget for 2016-17 was presented in Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, after which the House was adjourned. In Rajya Sabha, the budget and fiscal policy statements were laid subsequently and then the House was adjourned.

The Week in Parliament

THE Budget Session of Parliament began on February 23 with President Pranab Mukherjee’s address to a joint session of both the Houses. After the President's address, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha met and made obituary references. Both the Houses were adjourned after laying the President's address on the table of the respective House.

The Week in Parliament

THE week started with uproar in both the Houses of Parliament as the opposition united against the government over the exclusion of Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy from a programme attended by Prime Minister Narendra  Modi. In the Lok Sabha, the Left parties along with Congress, the NCP and the RJD, staged walkout. The Rajya Sabha was disrupted over the killing of a Dalit in Punjab and on the encroachment drive by Railways in Shakur Basti, Delhi where 500 slum-dwellings were demolished mindlessly leading to the death of a child and leaving several slum-dwellers roofless in winter.

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

IN Lok Sabha, speaking on the flood situation in various parts of the country, M B Rajesh said that while Karnataka was declared drought hit, Tamil Nadu is facing devastating flood. The whole country has shown the great consideration and solidarity with the people of Tamil Nadu. I was participating in a fund collection in Cochin, within 20 minutes, we could collect more than Rs 1 lakh. As many as 302 districts out of 676 in the country are facing drought. Eight states have already been declared drought hit.

The Week in Parliament

THE monsoon session of Parliament began on a stormy note on July 21. The Rajya Sabha witnessed multiple adjournments with the opposition demanding resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over the Lalit Modi controversy, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh over the Vyapam scam, while the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the whole day after making obituary reference on account of a sitting member’s death.

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

THE NDA government, after assuming office, has been constantly trying to bypass well-established parliamentary procedures. To push through crucial legislations without proper scrutiny, the government’s approach is to firstly use its “brute majority” in the Lok Sabha to bulldoze all oppositions to anti-people laws, and secondly, to pass off any legislation that deals with or relates to finance as a ‘Money Bill’, which under our Constitution, does not required approval by the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling dispensation is in minority.

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

HAVING once failed to get the nod of Rajya Sabha for its anti-farmer land bill, the government made another attempt to get it passed by Parliament and introduced the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which seeks to replace the re-promulgated ordinance, in the Lower House. In its attempt to push through the land bill and other legislations, the government even extended the Budget Session of Lok Sabha by three days till May 13.

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

THE first day of the week began by observing a minute's silence in memory of those killed in the devastating earthquake in Nepal and parts of India. Speaking on this, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury expressed sympathy with the people of Nepal and parts of our own country devastated by the earthquake and said on behalf of CPI(M) funds will be collected across the country to help the affected people. The government should put in place a structure so that there should be a medium for whatever resources are collected.

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