Cong walks out of meet on LS agenda
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday walked out of the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of Lok Sabha, alleging that the central government was adopting an "undemocratic" approach and bulldozing the proceedings in the House.
A meeting of the BAC to decide on the Lok Sabha's agenda for next week was held in Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's chamber on Thursday afternoon where leaders from a number of parties were present.
The Lok Sabha has been paralysed since March 5, when Parliament met after a recess, due to protest by various parties on issues like PNB scam, special status for Andhra Pradesh and Cauvery dispute. Amid the din, the Finance Bill and the appropriation bills were yesterday passed by the House without discussion and two other bills were also pushed today by the government.
Unhappy with the passage of bills without any discussion, Congress leader and deputy chief whip of the party in the lower house KC Venugopa today stormed out of the BAC meeting and accused the government of bypassing all democratic traditions and customs of the House.
He alleged that the government was trying to avoid discussion on the PNB scam issue.
The Government had yesterday passed the all-important finance bill and demands for grants without any discussion in the Lok Sabha.
He said on Thursday too the government went ahead with two bills without any discussion, although the opposition parties, including the Congress, had agreed to cooperate in passage of important legislations like The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill. JAIPUR: The three BJP candidates in Rajasthan for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections were on Thursday elected unopposed as no other contestant had filed their nomination, an official said. The BJP candidates -- Kirori Meena, Bhupender Yadav and Madan Lal Saini -were declared elected unopposed after scrutiny of their nominations, Secretary, Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, Prithvi Raj, said here.
He said that Returning Officer Akhil Arora declared the candidates as winner.
Meena had separated from the BJP in 2008 and had rejoined the party on Sunday along with his two National Peoples Party (NPP) MLAS. He, as the state president of the NPP, which he had joined in 2013, also merged his party with the BJP. GANDHINAGAR: Four candidates -- two each of the Congress and the BJP -- were on Thursday elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, days after the last moment entry of two nominees from these parties raised the prospect of a contest.
Union ministers Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandavia (BJP) and Naran Rathwa and Amee Yajnik (Congress) were declared elected unopposed by the election authorities after BJP'S Kiritsinh Rana and Congress-backed Independent PK Valera backed off on the last day of withdrawal of nominations today.
A total of four seats were up for grabs from the state.
"BJP'S Union ministers Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandavia, and Congress candidates Naran Rathwa and Amee Yajnik are declared elected unopposed," Returning Officer for Rajya Sabha polls, A V Karova, said.
"On the last day of withdrawal of nomination forms, BJP candidate Kirsitsinh Rana and Independent nominee PK Valera, along with other dummy candidates, withdrew their papers, leaving only four candidates," he said.
The prospect of a contest came up when Valera, a Congress general secretary, and Rana filed their forms on the last day of filing of nomination papers on March 12.
On March 13, the BJP took objection to Rathwa's candidature during the scrutiny of forms alleging that he had filed a "fake" no-dues certificate along with his nomination forms.
However, the returning officer overruled the BJP'S allegations and accepted Rathwa's papers during scrutiny.
Unhappy with the officer's decision, the BJP approached the Election Commission demanding the nomination of Rathwa be quashed because of "several irregularities" in his form. However, the poll panel ruled out any immediate intervention. NEW DELHI: Uproarious scenes by opposition and NDA partner TDP seeking a probe into India's largest Rs 12,700 crore banking scam and special status to Andhra Pradesh disrupted Rajya Sabha proceedings for the ninth consecutive day on Thursday.
The House was adjourned for the day in the afternoon after witnessing two adjournments earlier in the day.
Minutes after the Upper House reassembled at 3 pm, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien who was in the Chair rose to his feet and urged the opposition to take up the Finance Bill and Appropriation Bills as members from TDP, AIADMK and Congress trooped into the Well raising slogans and carrying placards.
"Please listen to my request...there is Finance Bill...
Appropriation Bills...if you don't consider (them), Rajya Sabha will beocme irrelevant. I will dispose (these) in five minutes," Kurien urged the members.
To this, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said "No Bill can just be finished in five minutes".
However, as the sloganshouting continued, Kurien adjourned the House for the day, saying "I will have to adjourn the House and the responsibility of not discussing or taking up Finance Bill is on the shouting members".
Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved a statutory resolution to approve a notification of March 1 which seeks to increase the basic custom duty on chickpeas, falling under a tariff item of the Customs Tariff Act from 40 to 60 per cent.
When the House had met at 3 PM, former minister TDP MP YS Chowdhary, who was earlier allowed by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to make a statement under Rule 241 on the reasons for quitting the Union Cabinet, said he wanted to complete his statement.
However, Kurien did not permit him, saying "I am not denying your right...the point is, the statement was allowed in the morning and it could not be completed...on what ground (that) I am not aware...you can request the honourable Chairman tomorrow." Soon after it met for the day, the Upper House was adjourned till 2 pm amidst protests by Congress members over Chowdary's remarks against the erstwhile UPA regime over the division of Andhra Pradesh.