Page 6 - Parliament

Will speak in Parliament if allowed by chair, says Congress' Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday arrived in Parliament House after his return from abroad and said he has said nothing against India or the Parliament during his London visit. He said he would speak in Parliament if he is allowed by the chair. "If they allow me to speak in Parliament, then I will say what I think," he told reporters while leaving Parliament. He said it will not be to the BJP's liking when he speaks inside Parliament. Gandhi said if he is not allowed, he would speak outside Parliament. Gandhi arrived in Parliament House after his return from abroad and smiled when asked if he would apologise for his remarks made in London. During an event in the UK, Gandhi had alleged that the structures of Indian democracy are under attack and there is a "full-scale assault" on the country's institutions. The BJP has stepped up the heat on Gandhi, accusing him of speaking against India and the country's institutions including Parliament and has demanded an apology from hi

Only BJP members allowed to speak in Parliament, says TMC MP Mahua Moitra

In a tweet on Thursday, TMC MP Mahua Moitra said that Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla was allowing 'only BJP' ministers to speak in the parliament

Govt not letting Parliament run to avoid discussion on Adani issue: Kharge

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday accused the government of instigating the Opposition and not letting Parliament function to avoid a discussion on the Adani issue and its "failures". He also reiterated that there is no question of an apology over Rahul Gandhi's remarks in the UK. Gandhi's remarks during his recent trip to the United Kingdom have rocked Parliament, with both Houses failing to transact any significant business on the first three days of the Budget session's second half. "Is there untouchability or not, it is there, so if someone goes abroad that person will talk about itlikewise democracy is being trampled upon, we were demonstrating peacefully yesterday, who stopped us? They put women constables in the front to try and stop us," Kharge alleged. The Congress along with several other opposition parties had taken out a protest march from Parliament House to hand over a complaint to the Enforcement Directorate on the Adani issue on Wednesday. However,

Rahul to be in Parliament, impasse between opposition, govt unlikely to end

Opposition MPs from both the houses have given adjournment notices on demand of JPC in Hindenburg Adani row

Parliament panel raises concern over budgetary allocation of PMKSY, DILRMP

A parliamentary panel has raised concerns over the marginal budgetary increase in one of the key components of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana. It also raised concern over the reduced allocation in the Digital India Land Records Management Programme, saying both the schemes have remarkable impact on the ground. The parliamentary standing committee on Rural Development ministry's department of land records said there has been an increase of 10 per cent from Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 2,200 crore in the budgetary allocation of the Watershed Development Component - Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY). It also said the BE for DILRMP has been reduced by 18.18 per cent (from Rs 239.25 crore to Rs 195.75 crore) during 2023-24 as compared to previous year's allocation at BE stage. "The committee, considering the overall performance of these two schemes and their remarkable impact on the ground, feel that the reduction made in the BE component seems to be an imprudent appro

Parliamentary panel raises concerns over budget cuts for MGNREGA scheme

Even as a parliamentary standing committee raised concerns over the reduced fund allocation for the MGNREGA scheme, the government said there is "no dearth of money" if the demand arises for wage employment. The Standing Committee on Rural Development, which submitted its report in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, said the budget estimates for MGNREGS have been reduced by Rs 29,400 crore for 2023-24 when compared to the revised estimates of 2022-23. "The Act governing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme provides Right to Work' to such deprived sections of the rural populace who are willing to work. It is a last resort of succour for the jobless section who don't have any other means to feed them and their family members," the report said. "The role and importance of MGNREGA were visible during the corona pandemic times when it acted as a ray of hope for the needy in times of distress," it said. The ministry, in its response, stated that the scheme is ...

RailYatri penalised for data leak, app restored after security measures

The government penalised the RailYatri app custodian company for a data leak and the app was restored after taking necessary security measures, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a written reply to the Lok Sabha said that IRCTC took action on the RailYatri app following information shared by CERT-In in December 2022. "As per information furnished by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), upon receipt of information from CERT-In in December 2022 regarding leakage of data acquired and maintained by RailYatri app, the ticket-booking facility on RailYatri app was stopped, penalty was imposed on the company which is the custodian of the RailYatri app, and the app was restored after taking necessary security measures," he said. The minister said that a total of 10, 5 and 7 incidents of data leak related to government organisations were reported for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively. "As per

Women's Reservation Bill necessary to ensure representation: K Kavitha

Stating that the Women's Reservation Bill will help in raising the representation of women in the Parliament, Bharatiya Rashtriya Samiti (BRS) leader K Kavitha on Wednesday

PM Modi holds meeting with several cabinet ministers in Parliament

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with several cabinet ministers in Parliament on Tuesday, sources said. The sources said the prime minister holds such meetings with Union ministers to deliberate on the government's strategy in Parliament. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha and Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur were among those who attended the meet, they said. The second part of the Budget session of Parliament, which started on Monday, is seeing repeated disruption of proceedings over the remarks made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his recent visit to the UK.

Not in favour of setting up Fiscal Council, Centre tells Rajya Sabha

The central government on Tuesday informed the Rajya Sabha said that it is not in favour of setting up a Fiscal Council as was suggested by the different Finance Commissions. The 15th Finance Commission had suggested to the centre to set up an independent Fiscal Council with powers to access records as required from the Union as well as the States. Similar suggestions were made by the 13th and the 14th Finance Commissions. Disagreeing with the suggestion, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply in the Upper House said the "institutions such as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the National Statistical Commission, the Finance Commission, etc. perform some or all of the roles proposed for the Fiscal Council by different Finance Commissions on Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM)." The finance commissions wanted the centre to set up the Fiscal Council to assess and monitor fiscal policy, effective implementation of fiscal rules and ..

Logjam continues in Parliament over Rahul Gandhi remarks, Adani issue

Terming it as a non-issue, Giriraj Singh said, "Adani-Ambani is just an excuse, they just want to abuse Modi".

Par panel pulls up agriculture dept for surrender of Rs 44,016 cr in 3 yrs

A Parliamentary panel has expressed concern over the surrender of funds amounting to Rs 44,015.81 crore in three financial years, including the current fiscal, by the Department of Agriculture and said corrective measures should be taken to ensure full utilisation of the budgeted amount. The Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing has laid its report on the department in the Lok Sabha on March 13 and in the Rajya Sabha on March 14. "The Committee note from the reply of the Department that funds have been surrendered amounting to Rs 23,824.54 crore, Rs 429.22 crore and Rs 19,762.05 crore during 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 (tentative), respectively. That means Rs 44,015.81 crore in total have been surrendered by the Department in these years," the report said. The committee have been informed that the surrender of funds is mainly on account of less requirement under NES (North Eastern States), SCSP (Schedule Caste Sub-Plan) and Tribal Area Sub-Plan ...

Ensure airlines do not practice predatory pricing: Parl panel tells govt

A parliamentary panel has asked the civil aviation ministry to cap the upper and lower levels of airfares, and ensure that predatory pricing mechanism is not adopted by the airlines under the cloak of free market economy. "A perfect balance has to be maintained between the commercial interest of the private airlines and the interest of the passengers so as to enable the private airlines to grow and at the same time the interest of passengers should also be kept in mind, so that they are not fleeced in the garb of commercialisation," the panel said. The recommendations have been made by the Department -related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture in its report on the ministry's demand for grants for 2023-24. The report was tabled in Parliament on Monday. Among others, there have been complaints about sudden surge in air ticket prices during peak travel seasons. The committee also observed that presently the surge in airfares does not reflect any sort of

PM Modi holds meeting with ministers in Parliament including Goyal, Thakur

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held a meeting with his top ministers in Parliament.The minister included Union Minister of Coal Pralhad Joshi, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur and Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in Parliament.On Monday, the second leg of the Budget session of Parliament resumed after a month-long break. The Parliament was adjourned twice after ruckus by the Opposition as Leader of the House Piyush Goyal sought an apology from Rahul Gandhi over his statement in London.The second leg of the ongoing Budget Session will continue till April 6.On Monday, Modi held a meeting with his top ministers to formulate the government's strategy ahead of the second part of the Budget session.Earlier on Monday, a meeting of Congress MPs under the chairmanship of party president ...

Centre to seek Parl's nod for 2nd batch of supplementary demands for grants

The Centre on Tuesday will seek Parliament's approval for the second batch of supplementary demands for grants (2022-23).

23 of 55 high-priority DRDO projects missed deadline: Govt in Parliament

Twenty-three of the 55 high-priority projects being implemented by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) could not meet their respective deadlines, the government informed Parliament on Monday. The projects included developing anti-air field weapons, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range radars, combat vehicles, combat suits for submarines and submarine periscopes, among others. Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt provided the details in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. He said high-priority projects are undertaken at the DRDO under the Mission Mode (MM) project category. "Currently, there are 55 numbers of ongoing MM (Mission Mode) projects such as anti-air field weapons, solid fuel ducted ramjet technology, surface to air missiles, anti-ship missiles, long range radars, combat vehicles, high endurance autonomous underwater vehicles, combat suits for submarines, submarine periscopes etc.," Bhatt said. "Of these 55 numbers

Angry govt lashes out at Rahul Gandhi's London panning of Indian democracy

Opposition's plans to raise Hindenburg issue, demand for JPC get no hearing as both houses are adjourned early

Parliament panel raises concern over pace of Vande Bharat train production

A parliamentary standing committee on Railways has raised concern over the pace of production of Vande Bharat trains and said that in 2022-23, only eight rakes have been manufactured till now against the target of 35 for the year. The fourteenth report of the Standing Committee on Railways headed by BJP MP Radha Mohan Singh, in its 14th report on the demand for grants, has asked that the Railways need to intensify efforts for the production of Vande Bharat rakes/coaches to meet the aspirations of rail commuters. "The Committee while expressing their concern to find that out of 35 rakes of Vande Bharat planned for the year 2022-23, only 08 rakes have been turned out till date, are of the view that with this pace of production, the Railways may find it difficult to achieve their set target," the report, which was tabled in both Houses of Parliament on Monday, said. The Committee also noted that during the budget speech of 2022-23, the finance minister had announced 400 Vande Bharat ..

EPF member accounts of 98% contributory firms updated till March 6: Govt

Employees' provident fund (EPF) member accounts of 98 per cent of contributory firms or establishments have been updated with the latest interest credit till March 6, 2023, Parliament was informed on Monday. Many members and employees' representatives have raised the issue of not crediting the rate of interest on EPF for 2021-22, which was fixed at 8.1 per cent. "This (interest crediting) is an ongoing process, which has been taken up in a scheduled manner post development of software and by March 6, 2023, the process has been completed in respect of 98 per cent of contributory establishments," stated Minister of State for Labour and Employment Rameshwar Teli in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Monday. Teli explained that account updation with interest credit is a comprehensive exercise requiring scrutiny of each individual transaction made in respect of each and every individual member's accounts, thus making the entire process very exhaustive. Till March 6, 2023, accounts of .

Parliament adjourned till Tue amid protests over Rahul's remarks, Adani row

Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned till Tuesday, amid vociferous protests by both treasury benches and opposition members over the issue of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's speech in London