Parliament held up for 10th day, nation pays the cost

[rohit bansal]

Business was derailed in Parliament for the tenth day on Thursday as
Opposition and the Treasury benches vociferously raised matters of
corruption leading to adjournment of both the Houses, causing the
public exchequer well over Rs 60 crore in the winter session till now.
Amid pandemonium, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Thursday were
adjourned for an hour barely a minute after they met and later
adjourned for the day.

Samajwadi Party members began their march to the Lok Sabha from the
gates of Parliament with party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in the lead
demanding a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam.

As soon as Speaker Meira Kumar assumed her seat, Opposition members
led by the AIADMK, rushed to the well and were soon joined by those
from BJP, Shiv Sena and some other parties.

The Congress members too waved placards and added equally to the
pandemonium by raising slogans against Karnataka chief minister B S
Yeddyurappa.

In Rajya Sabha too the scene was similar with the Opposition demanding
JPC probe into 2G spectrum scam and rushed into the well even before
Chairman Hamid Ansari could take his seat.

While the ruling benches protested BJP's decision to let Yeddyrurappa
continue as Karnataka chief minister despite allegations of wrong
doing in land allotments in the state.

Since November 10, the Parliament has not transacted any significant
business and both the Houses have been witnessing adjournments barely
minutes after meeting, causign huge loss to the public exchequer.

Disruption of Parliament proceedings over the last ten days has caused
a loss of over Rs 61.20 crore to the public exchequer. Statistics
released by the PRS Legislative Research indicates that Lok Sabha
members put in just 5.3 productive hours of the scheduled time of 48
hours during the first eight days of the ongoing winter session.

Against 30.4 hours lost on account of adjournments in the first eight
days of this year's budget session, 41 hours were lost in the two
houses in the monsoon session.

Figures climbed to a whopping 81 hours of lost work for the same
period in the winter session, the data indicates.

Disruptions over the 2G spectrum scam have come in at rather an
appropriate time for the MPs.

Several members have been busy in this season of marriages. DMK leader
MK Alagiri married off his son lately, while BJP chief Nitin Gadkari's
son's marriage is on December 3.

Bihar MPs Lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav were preoccupied with
electioneering in the state, while Trinamool Congress chief Mamata
Banerjee has been kept busy with foundation stone laying programs for
railway projects in West Bengal.

Congress MP Milind Deora was recently spotted at a music show in Delhi.