Najma pulls up two ministers for 'evasive replies'

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Najma Heptulla on Tuesday reprimanded Commerce Minister B B Ramaiah and Minister of State for Finance Satpal Maharaj for not doing their home work.

''When a question is listed you should come prepared. This is not the way replies are given,'' she told the ministers during the question hour in the Rajya Sabha when agitated members expressed their dissatisfaction over the ministers's evasive replies.

She directed Maharaj to send detailed replies to the Rajya Sabha secretariat and the members on the questions regarding excise duty evasion.

Similarly, when Ramaiah was asked about the patent law, he replied that it did not come under the purview of his ministry.

The deputy chairman did not agree with the minister and said it was the collective responsibility of the Union Council of Ministers. She said the commerce minister had shown ''disrespect to the House by leaving the Rajya Sabha without tabling the papers listed against his name''.

Earlier, the chair directed the minister to lay on the table of the House papers listed against his name.

When Ramaiah's name was again called for tabling motion for an election to the tobacco board, the minister was not present in the House.

Union Human Resource Development Minister S R Bommai said he was prepared to table the papers listed against Ramaiah's name but the chair disallowed him from doing so. ''I will not permit you.... There should be some dignity of the House. It is unfortunate that Ramaiah left without the permission of the House,'' she told Bommai.

UNI