Govt to take up Lokpal Bill in RS soon

Pawan Kumar Bansal said that the govt would bring the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said on Wednesday that the government would bring the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha within the first part of the Budget Session.

Notwithstanding the primacy that is accorded to passing of financial business,the government wishes to bring the Lokpal Bill for further discussion in this part of the session, Bansal said. He said the government has studied the amendments and we have formulated our views.

Earlier,Bansal had said it would be difficult to take up the Bill in the first part of the session due to financial business. On Wednesday,he said Rajya Sabha chairman Mohammad Hamid Ansari had no option but to adjourn it sine die on December 29.

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Addressing Ansari,he said: The government did not come to you for extension of the session. There was no occasion for you to call a meeting of the BAC also. I agree I could have stood up then and said we want the House to be extended. We are in parliamentary democracy. That is not the right of the Opposition. With utmost humility I say again,it is not your right to summon the House even if all 245 members,or 543 members of Lok Sabha,were to go to the President and say we want the House to be summoned… The House would be summoned only when the government writes to the President that we request you to summon the House.

Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley quoted rule 257 to state that while the chairman can adjourn the House for a time period,the debate cannot be indefinitely abandoned. He said the debate on the Lokpal Bill should be taken up immediately.

When Bansal said the government would hold consultations with parties,Jaitley retorted that it did not deem it necessary to hold consultations for the last two-and-a-half months.

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