Charging the Congress-led coalition Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh said the UPA Government has avoided the House on several counts.
NEW DELHI: Charging the Congress-led coalition with taking Parliament 'most arbitrarily and casually', Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh on Monday said the UPA Government has avoided the House on several counts.
Taking exception to the shifting of the debate on Indo-US nuclear deal in the Upper House from 12 noon to two PM on Monday because of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's preoccupations, the senior BJP leader said "Parliament cannot be treated casually by treasury benches."
Raising the matter during Zero Hour, he said it was always an established convention that whenever the Prime Minister or the External Affairs Minister visit abroad, they are bound by duty to report to Parliament on their return.
"It is invariably mandatory upon the Government to report to Parliament what they have done when they undertook the visit abroad," he said.
The Opposition leader said the Prime Minister absented himself for almost a crucial week out of the total three-week winter session when there was so much activity in India's neighbourood.
He also drew the attention of the Chair towards Government bringing a certain legislation in the House without listing it.
Contesting Singh's claim, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachouri sought to turn the tables asking him as to how many times he had briefed the House on his foreign trips when he was the External Affairs Minister during the NDA regime.
Pachouri said whenever there was a need to inform the House, the Government would not hesitate in doing so.
About Prime Minister's visit abroad, he said dates were fixed earlier keeping in view various international commitments.
S S Ahluwalia (BJP) tried to counter Pachauri by citing rules but he was shouted down by treasury benches.
Through another Zero Hour notice, Tapan Kumar Sen (CPI-M) referred to the strike by 45,000 employees and officers of associate banks of the State Bank of India over the unilateral move for merger of these banks with the SBI.
He said "bulldozing the concerns" of employees is not going to help in any manner in realising the objective and demanded that the matter be sorted out in the interest of all concerned.
R Chandrasekar Reddy (TDP) expressed concern over the plight of cotton growers in Andhra Pradesh and demanded enhancement of Minimum Support Price to Rs.3,100 per quintal and an inquiry into activities of the Cotton Corporation of India.
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