Parliament on Friday concluded crucial financial business with Rajya Sabha passing the supplementary demands of Rs. 1,024.61 crore for railways amid unabated din by the Opposition over demand for JPC on 2G spectrum allocation.
The Rajya Sabha passed the Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2010-11 by a voice vote and without debate, as Opposition members disrupted proceedings by raising slogans in the well.
An important measure, the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010, was also introduced in the House where the Question Hour was earlier disrupted when it met in the morning.
While the government pushed through these important measures, the Opposition continued to raise slogans demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the allocation of radiowaves, repeating scenes witnessed over the last 15 successive working days.
The House was adjourned till 2.30 pm. The scene was no different when it reassembled and the Chair adjourned it till Monday.
Similar scenes were witnessed in the Lok Sabha where Speaker Meira Kumar appealed to the protesting members to allow the House to take up private members’ business.
Observing that private members’ business has not so far been taken up in this session, she said the members might not get another opportunity if their items were not taken up on Friday.
“It is my earnest appeal to all sections of the House to allow private members business,” she said before adjourning the House till 3.30 pm.
However, when the House met again, similar protests broke out and the House was adjourned for the day.
Earlier, when the Parliament met for the day, both Houses paid homage to the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy on its 26th anniversary and observed silence.
In the Rajya Sabha, Vice-President Hamid Ansari regretted the “indifferent attitude” of authorities in the subsequent years of the tragedy and said it had compounded the “human tragedy of unparalleled magnitude”.
