Demand to ensure that Parliament meets for at least 100 days each year is back on the table, with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) suggesting a constitutional amendment incorporating the provision.
Stating that the forum is the place to hold the government accountable, the CPI (M) said it will raise the issue in both the Houses. For the past few years, the CPI and CPI (M) have been demanding that the highest law making body increase its sittings to at least 100 days in a calendar year.
“The government’s stand that there is no need to have more sittings of Parliament because there is no legislative business, amounts to abdicating its constitutional responsibility. Besides making laws, Parliament raises issues of public importance and maintains vigil on the Executive,” CPI (M) Parliamentary party leader Sitaram Yechury said at a press conference here.
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Mr. Yechury said the British Parliament was mandated to hold a minimum of 160 sittings every year and there were nearly 200 sittings on an average. “Here we had only 46 sittings last year. This is serious undermining of the Constitution,” he said. Beside him was the party’s Lok Sabha leader Basudeb Acharia.
Issues finalised
With the winter session of Parliament starting on Thursday, the party finalised the issues it would like to focus on, including a plan to question the safety issue of Railways that witnessed some six accidents in as many weeks.
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“While the Minister (Mamata Banerjee) is preoccupied somewhere else, the Cabinet should own up responsibility for the safety of the millions who travel each day,” Mr. Yechury said.
Corruption cases like the telecom scam, the 2G spectrum allocation and alleged money laundering by the former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda also figure on the list.