LS speaker to set up panel to look into ruckus

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will form a committee to review all developments in the Lower House of Parliament from the beginning of the second half of the budget session till Thursday when seven Congress MPS were suspended for the remaining part of the session. An announcement was made by Kirit Solanki, who was in the chair as Birla continued to stay away from the House even as Congress and other Opposition parties embarked on a fresh round of protests. Solanki told the House that all developments in the House between March 2 and March 5 will be reviewed by the panel, which will be headed by Birla and have representatives from almost all parties.

Earlier in the day, several members urged the Speaker to take back his decision to suspend the seven MPS. Congress MPS Gaurav Gogoi, Manikram Tagore, Benny Behanan, Dean Kuriakose, Rajmohan Unnithan and Gurjeet Singh Aujla were suspended after they stalled proceedings for the fourth day in a row on Thursday, and started throwing papers from the Speaker’s table.

As proceedings began in the Lower House on Friday, Congress floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called Birla “Pope of the Vatican” and urged him to reconsider his decision. Members from the Trinamool Congress (Sudip Bandopadhyay), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Dayanidhi Maran), Nationalist Congress Party (Supriya Sule), and Janata Dal (United) (Lallan Singh), too urged the Speaker to withdraw the suspension. Chowdhury dubbed the Speaker’s decision to suspend seven MPS for the remaining term of the House unprecedented and urged the Chair not to punish them heavily for what he termed a relatively small matter.

ALL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE HOUSE BETWEEN MARCH 2 AND MARCH 5 WILL BE REVIEWED BY THE PANEL

NEWDELHI: Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read on Friday separately met Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss relief options to keep the company afloat, as it stares at ₹53,000 crore in unpaid statutory dues. Vodafone Idea has said its self assessment pegs AGR liabilities at just ₹21,533 crore. The company has so far paid ₹3,500 crore in licence fee and spectrum usage dues to the telecom department.