Highlights for Day 55 of Narendra Modi government Development Work
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- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 21:01
Highlights for Day 55 of Narendra Modi government Development Work
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Chaos over Gaza: Rajya Sabha adjourned twice during Question Hour
Congress-led Opposition on Thursday created disturbance in Rajya Sabha over a discussion on violence in Gaza not being listed in the day's agenda, leading to two adjournments during the Question Hour.
As soon as the House met for the day, Chairman Hamid Ansari said though the matter was included in Wednesday's agenda, it has not been done so on Thursday following a request from Leader of the House Arun Jaitley that the issue "may not be taken up on July 17 and that the Government will communicate an appropriate date for the same soon." This infuriated members of Congress and other parties in the Opposition.
Quoting rules, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma insisted that once a matter has been included in the list of business it becomes the property of the House and must be listed the very next day.
CPIM leader Sitaram Yechury also supported Sharma saying dropping the issue from the agenda would amount to violation of the Constitution. He said though a communication has been received from Jaitely for having the discussion on another date, the reason for it has not been given.
JDU leader Sharad Yadav said many Indians earn their livelihood in West Asia and thus, the matter concerned many people in India. Members also wanted to know why the discussion on the issue was being delayed, particularly after the violence was condemned by BRICS leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The issue was raised as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday sent a letter to the Chairman requesting him to withdraw the issue from the day's agenda. In his ruling on Thusrady, Ansari said he was "unable to accede to the request" of Swaraj that the demand for discussion is inadmissible as he did not find any "infirmity in the notice given by" Leader of the Opposition and others.
Amid din, Ansari adjourned the House for 15 minutes. When the House reassembled, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad urged the Chair to suspend the Question Hour and take up a discussion on the issue. AIADMK leader V Maitreyan stood up and demanded that the Question Hour be taken up, much to the anger of Congress and other parties. Amid uproar, Ansari adjourned the Hosue till noon.
Modi Govt. spends Rs 35,000 crore under SC/ST sub-plan in 2013-14
Government's 25 ministries and department spent Rs 35,800.60 crore last fiscal under schedule Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) Sub-Plan, which is meant for welfare of these communities, Parliament was informed on Thursday.
However, government had allocated Rs 41,561.13 crore under the SC/ST Sub-Plan for the central ministries for 2013-14, Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
According to Singh, certain schemes to provide universal coverage for example, village electrification, benefit all poor households including SC/ST families and bifurcation of allocation made on the basis of caste and gender is not
possible under such programmes.
"Therefore, for schemes which have universal coverage, ministries are finding it difficult to fully utilise funds earmarked under SC/ST Sub-Plan," the Minister said.
He said this in reply to a query on the amount that has been actually utilised during the last three years under the SC/ST subplan and the reason for non-utilisation of entire allocated funds.
He further stated that the remaining ministries are not allocating funds for SC/ST Sub-Plan as they are covered under the exempted category as per the recommendation of a task force constituted by the Planning Commission.
In 2012-13, the central ministries and departments utilised Rs 28,218.81 crore against the allocation of Rs 37,113.03 crore for the purpose.
Similarly, an amount of Rs 31,555.66 crore was allocated for 2011-12 whereas Rs 29,940.78 was spent by the central ministries and departments in this regard, the House was told.
Workshop for first-time members of Rajya Sabha
A two-day orientation programme for the newly-elected and nominated members of Rajya Sabha is being organized on Saturday which aims at familiarizing them with various aspects of the functioning of parliament.
The Programme, to be inaugurated by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, will have lectures on topics such as Rajya Sabha: Its Role and Contribution to Indian Polity.
Other topics will be lawmaking process, parliamentary privillages, committee system, raising of matters of public importance through questions and other devices, role of the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition, ethics in politics and Member of parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), a release by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said.
Speaker to decide Who will sit next to whom in Lok Sabha,
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is expected to finalise the seating arrangement in the new House this week even as there is no clarity as to when a decision on the issue of Leader of the Opposition will be taken.
Parliament sources said Mahajan faces a tricky situation in view of the fact that AIADMK, Trinamool Congress and BJD are not keen about the idea of sitting next to Congress.
Neither the AIADMK nor the Trinamool Congress and Biju Janata Dal appear to be willing to have seats in Lok Sabha along with Congress, the sources said. Officials concerned have held several rounds of meeting to sort out the matter and the decision is expected this week.
Parliamentary observers say Congress has been the main rival of the BJD in Odisha while Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress sometimes acts in support of the government and sometimes sides with the opposition.
While discussions for the election of Deputy Speaker are expected to begin this week, reports had it that the post could go to M Thambidurai of AIADMK in the wake of a 'good' meeting party chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi sometime back.
Modi's oath cermony cost Rs17.60 lakh
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony cost Rs 17.60 lakh, RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal said on Sunday.
Agrawal said he was told by the Central Public Works Department that the money was spent "on arrangements related to tent, stage, furniture and other related items ... at Rashtrapati Bhawan".
Agrawal said the amount spent was "modest" considering the ceremony was attended by around 4,000 people including foreign dignitaries.
With additional inputs from Agencies -- Written By aadil Mir--