Slamming the Defence Ministry over the nine-year delay in awarding contract to French firm Thales to build six Scorpene submarines in Mumbai, a Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday said the indecisiveness resulted in cost overruns and undue favour to the vendor, besides adversely impacting Navy's operational preparedness.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday took its grievances against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress-led United Progressive Alliance to President Pranab Mukherjee, demanding his intervention on the coal allocation issue and attacks on a constitutional institution like the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The allocations followed two stages.
With Joint Parliamentary Committee chairman P C Chacko stating that the Parliament Accounts Committee should confine itself to the Comptroller and Auditor General report on 2G spectrum allocation, PAC chief Murli Manohar Joshi on Wednesday refused to join issue with him. He said Chacko should give his suggestions in writing.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said Murli Manohar Joshi will continue as chairman of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee for 2011-12, currently looking into anomalies in the 2G spectrum scam, as he is doing a "good job".
Facebook -- which counts India among its largest markets with over 300 million users -- has been in the eye of a storm after a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report alleged that the social media platform's content policies favoured the ruling party in India. The report had accused Facebook of ignoring posts containing hate speech by BJP MLA Raja Singh. Since then, the ruling BJP and Congress have been trading barbs over the social media giant's alleged political bias.
Was the prime minister's offer to appear before the Public Accounts Committee 'precedent' an afterthought? Looks like it, if one were to go carefully through the press handout being distributed at the media centre at the Congress plenary in New Delhi.
Running a fractious House full of members every bit as well versed in parliamentary law as the chair, has, in the past, reduced several Rajya Sabha chairmen to tears.
Former Union minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi is likely to become the next chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee while Yashwant Sinha will replace him as head of the Standing Committee on Finance, BJP sources said.
Against the backdrop of a CBI prosecutor in 2G case allegedly being caught on tape sharing legal strategy with an accused, members of a Parliamentary panel on Wednesday raised questions on the credibility of the investigation agency and its probe in the case.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Friday sought to bring the curtain down on the turf war between the Public Accounts Committee and the Joint Parliamentary Committee, asking the two bodies to work in close cooperation and harmony with each other.
Chairman of Public Accounts Committee Murli Manohar Joshi on Tuesday said that there was no conflict or clash between the Joint Parliamentary Committee and the panel headed by him and both can function within their own domain to probe irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation. He said that the JPC was supposed to work under specific terms of reference and conditions and did not have the right to summon the prime minister or any minister but PAC was a constitutional body.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Monday met expelled party veteran Jaswant Singh and is understood to have demanded that he step down from the post of chairperson of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.
CAG report commands respect and cannot be brushed aside but it cannot be the final word on an issue, the Supreme Court said today while noting that the auditor's findings cannot be gospel truth as it is subject to scrutiny by Parliament.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel asked why the prime minister and Centre were scared of ordering a probe into the fraud committed by the Adani Group.
Through gestures and decisions, the BJP high command has signalled that Raje may not be the lead actor but rather play a supporting role in a high-stakes election in its stamping ground.
On March 13, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary had tabled the second batch of supplementary demands for grants in the House amounting to a total of Rs 2,70,508.89 crore.
Mishra said the department-related parliamentary standing committee on home affairs in its 146th report had recommended that there is a need for a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system of the country.
A parliamentary panel's suggestion that CEOs' salaries should be capped has not found favour with industry chambers and leaders, who said the matter should be left to corporates and their shareholders.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday charged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with orchestrating a vilification campaign against the Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi after the parliamentary panel had asked a PMO official and the Attorney General to appear before it for questioning in the 2G scam.
The PAF plans to induct 250 JF-17s in the coming years.
Khera said when a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) could be set up by former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 'what is the problem of Narendra Gautamdas, sorry....Narendra Damodardas Modi'.
Companies making electric two-wheelers, through their association Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), have taken on the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI), saying they did not get subsidies for even half the mandated 1 million units they manufactured. Subsidies are given under Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles 2 (FAME II). In a petition to the parliamentary standing committee on industry energy and estimates, the SMEV said the department had done an "accounting error" by showing that it (the department) was close to achieving the mandated target by including sales of the EVs that were "not funded" under the scheme.
The panel has questioned the purchase of properties with 'avoidable' expensive appurtenances by the MEA for envoys posted abroad.
'There is a huge risk of misinformation and disinformation, and targeted campaigns that could potentially happen against candidates or to push certain narratives.'
Top Pakistani officials are refusing to disclose how and on what the country's powerful spy agency Inter Services Intelligence spent a whopping Rs 5.55 billion allocated to it during 2007-08. "This is highly sensitive information and hence I can't talk about it at an open forum," Finance Secretary Salman Siddiqui told the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly or the lower house of parliament.
The finance ministry on Friday informed a parliamentary committee that smuggling of fake currency has totally stopped post demonetisation and the tax department has seized Rs 515 crore in cash, including Rs 114 crore of new currency notes, up to January 10.
The Opposition party asked whether the prime minister will take responsibility for the 'deadliest rail tragedy' of this century.
Rijiju made the remarks while responding to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who dubbed as 'extremely dangerous' the government's move to ask the Supreme Court to include its nominees in collegium.
Corporate affairs minister Murli Deora has supported the recommendations of the Parliamentary standing committee to make spending under corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandatory under the proposed Companies Bill. Pending the Bill, the minister also announced a slew of measures to simplify procedures akin to the licence raj.
The defence ministry received the bags from a French firm at a cost of 11.86 million Francs, a parliamentary panel said.
Parliament's Budget session has been a washout since the beginning of its second part on March 13, with the BJP demanding an apology from Gandhi.
The meeting is believed to be called to chalk out the strategy of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha on Monday.
Jaswant refuses to step down as PAC chairman
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Tuesday rejected the party's demand to step down as chairman of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, saying a decision on this could be taken only by the Lok Sabha speaker and not by the party.
'It is violation of the Model Code of Conduct.' 'It is a penal offence under the IPC to exert undue influence on voters.' 'Under the election law, it is a corrupt practice.'
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge used poetry and humour to take swipes at the government on Monday, saying nothing will be accomplished by changing names, and went on to recall how first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's 'inclusive' approach of involving opposition parties had led to the laying of a strong foundation for the Constitution.
The decision came after a storm was kicked up by the ruling party members on Thomas' statement earlier this week that the PAC can call the PM to depose on the note ban issue.
'There is ample evidence to suggest that attacks on the PM's probity and his connections with business houses do not resonate with voters.'
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said he is not completely opposed to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the charges against the Adani group, but a Supreme Court committee will be more useful and effective.
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