With the Comptroller and Auditor General reports providing ammunition to the Opposition to attack the prime minister, Congress on Friday dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party's demand for his resignation while party chief Sonia Gandhi held a "strategy meeting" with senior ministers and party leaders.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal released an anthology titled 'Remains', compiled and written by poet, artist and award-winning diplomat Abhay Kumar.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal released an anthology titled 'Remains', compiled and written by poet, artist and award-winning diplomat Abhay Kumar.
The decision was taken at a meeting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had with Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.
UPA Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee's camp on Saturday hit back at opposition-backed candidate P A Sangma for raking up fresh allegations against his candidature saying the campaign was being "vitiated".
The much-talked about Lokpal Bill could be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday with the government writing to the Speaker to waive off the two-day period required before introducing a bill.
Nomination papers of Pranab Mukhejee, for the Presidential poll on July 19, are being readied, according to sources. Senior Union ministers and Members of Parliament have been summoned to Parliament House on Wednesday to affix their signatures on Mukherjee's papers.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to file on June 28 his nomination papers for the Presidential election.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has issued a letter inviting all Members of Parliament to attend United States President Barack Obama's address at the central hall on November 8.In a circular letter, Bansal also sought the cooperation of all the MPs to ensure the smooth functioning of both Houses of Parliament.The routine circular assumes significance as it specifically urges the Parliamentarians to attend Obama's address.
The monsoon session of Parliament is likely to begin on August 8 and continue till September 7, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said on Wednesday.
The Parliament was rocked on Monday with the Bharatiya Janata Party creating an uproar. They were lleging involvement of parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal in a shop allotment scam in Chandigarh, prompting him to dare the opposition to hold any kind of inquiry, including the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde will be the new Leader of the House in Lok Sabha, after his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee became the President.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has nominated Shinde to the post, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told reporters.
Parliament was shut down for the 11th day running on Thursday without transacting any substantive business, costing the taxpayer a staggering sum of Rs 85.80 crore as expenditure on each day of the session is calculated at Rs 7.8 crore.
Vice President Hamid Ansari will file nomination papers on Wednesday for his re-election to the post amid expectations in the United Progressive Alliance that he is set for a comfortable win.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday held consultations with Congress leaders from Karnataka on sharing of Cauvery waters with Tamil Nadu during which they told him about the "grim" situation in Karnataka.
Accusing the Opposition of not allowing the government to put forth its views in Parliament on Anna Hazare's detention, two senior ministers on Tuesday said such an attitude was "not fair" in a parliamentary system. Leader of the Lok Sabha and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said the Opposition created a pandemonium in Parliament forcing its adjournment.
On instructions from Congress president Sonia Gandhi, senior Union ministers were asked to brief Congress MPs on the allocation of coal blocks and the CAG report.
The government on Friday reached out to the Opposition to end the impasse in Parliament over the coal block allocation issue but the Bharatiya Janata Party remained firm on its stand that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should resign for his alleged complicity in the case.
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi meeting their party's stalwart of many decades -- President Pranab Mukherjee -- is not unusual, but the timing of their visits is, notes Sheela Bhatt
Rejecting as "preposterous" the opposition demand for resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over alleged scam in coal block allocation, the government on Tuesday said that it was ready for a discussion on the issue in Parliament.
In an extraordinary step, the Lok Sabha on Tuesday suspended eight Congress members from Telangana region for four days for repeatedly causing disruptions over separate statehood issue.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Monday postponed a debate in the House on the report of the Liberhan Commission, which was scheduled for Tuesday, due to non-availability of Hindi version of the Commission's report on Banri mosque demolition.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Saturday said Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi had no right to submit the draft report on the 2G scam to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as it was 'rejected' by a majority of the committee's members.
The United Progressive Alliance government on Tuesday extended the Winter session Parliament to pass four crucial anti-corruption bills -- the Lokpal Bill, the Citizens' Charter Bill, the Judicial Accountability Bill and the Whistleblowers' Bill.
The political storm in the United Progressive Alliance government over Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi issue on Thursday gave an opportunity to the Bharatiya Janata Party to charge that the government is short of number and is shying away from facing the amendments to the President's address in Parliament.
Parliamentary Affair Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said he wanted the BJP not to disrupt the proceedings today so that the bill can be taken up. "We have already lost three weeks due to disruptions. I would request them to let Parliament function for last two days so that important issues could be taken up," he said
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said that parties, who had supported the Bharatiya Janata Party in disrupting the proceedings, would now prevail upon it in the next week to go for a discussion.
After introducing the controversial nuclear liability bill in the Lok Sabha amid opposition protests, the government on Friday said it hopes to bring it for consideration in the Monsoon session of Parliament.
Senior Congress member P C Chacko was on Friday made the chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G spectrum issue, setting in motion the probe into what the opposition is alleging as the biggest scam in independent India.
Pressing for tabling of the Lokpal Bill on Wednesday itself in the Rajya Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left sought to corner the government which was not ready for immediate discussion on it.
Acknowledging that consensus eluded the all-party meeting on Lokpal issue, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Thursday said the government was confident that it would be able to table the proposed bill in the winter session itself.
However, the final decision on the date of presentation of the Budget will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.
Due to paucity of time, the UPA government will drop the traditional scrutiny of the Budget by the Parliamentary standing committees. Instead, Pranab Mukherjee is in touch with BJP and the CPM, while Pawan Kumar Bansal and Anand Sharma have been asked to liaise with the smaller parties to ensure the Budget moves smoothly through Parliament.
The United Progressive Alliance is seriously considering increasing the strength of the proposed Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G scam from 21 to 30 members to accommodate more parties, but it is in no mood to expand its scope of the JPC to cover Commonwealth Games (CWG) fiasco, the Adarsh Society scam and the cancelled ISRO S-band spectrum sale.
With the washout of winter session of Parliament weighing heavily on its mind, the government on Sunday appealed to the opposition to ensure a smooth budget session beginning next month expressing readiness to discuss all issues, including 2G spectrum, "on priority".
"Do you think the answer to break the deadlock is to demand the resignation (of the Prime Minister)? They are not moving forward. Today we had invited them for talks. But they are probably not willing to talk. Perhaps they will be ready to talk on Monday," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told reporters outside Parliament House.
Uncertainty prevails over the much-talked about Lokpal Bill being brought up for consideration in the monsoon session of the Parliament beginning on August 8.
Ahead of Anna Hazare's dharna in New Delhi on Sunday, government on Friday said Team Anna should await the passage of the Lokpal Bill before going ahead with any agitation on the issue.
Hectic political activity is on in New Delhi with the government upset with what it terms as Team Anna's attempts to seek political consensus on its Jan Lokpal Bill. There is also uncertainity surrounding the scheduled debate in Parliament over the draft bill.
Liberhan report debate in LS rescheduled to Dec 7.
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