The average asset of a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament is Rs 20.17 crore, says a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms. It also says that 67 per cent of Rajya Sabha MP's are crorepatis.
The Major Ports Authority Bill, 2020 was passed through ballot votes in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with 84 votes in its favour and 44 against it. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill on September 23 last year.
If the Opposition is bent upon shouting its own agenda on a deaf ruling dispensation, then it becomes binding upon the chair to ensure that the parliamentary affairs aren't reduced to a farce.
Cutting across party lines, lawmakers on Monday sought the passage of the amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act at the earliest amid the clamour over the release of the juvenile convict in the December 16 gang-rape case even as the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress traded charges over the delay in clearing of the legislation.
A heavy agenda including the ordinance on the Food Security Bill awaits the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning on Monday amid expectations that the short sitting will be more businesslike and smooth as compared to the din and dust in the last few sessions.
Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and Left MPs stormed into the Well of the House, saying the people were being cheated.
Several trains were cancelled, highways and key roads blocked and many thousands stranded for hours on Monday as a nationwide 10-hour shutdown against the Centre's three agri laws disrupted lives across parts of India, particularly in the north.
"Today, we stand united in solidarity with our security forces in fighting terrorism and in defending the unity and integrity of India."
Arun Jaitley, who is recovering from a kidney ailment, attended the proceedings after a long gap.
It was a multi-million rupee scam whose extent and reach are still being unravelled, so why did the chief of the scam-tainted Saradha group Sudipta Sen plead that he was unable to pay Rs 30,000 as bail fee? Where could all the money have gone? Indrani Roy finds out.
While the Trinamool government, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, tried its best to attract investors, including from Singapore, not much headway could be made.
With the talks between the Centre and the agitating farmer unions stalled since January, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Wednesday expressed readiness to resume the dialogue to resolve their objections to the three new agri laws, but the unions remained adamant on their demands for a repeal of the legislations and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price.
If the TMC doesn't stop violence, then the children of TMC workers would become orphans, he said.
This meeting came in the backdrop of a controversy raked up by some politicians, including those from Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India and Trinamool Congress, who objected to the sale of 24 per cent of Jet's equity to Etihad at a cost of Rs 2,058 crore, saying it was not in the national interests.
Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, said in a sarcastic way that personnel of security forces such as the CRPF, BSF, CISF and the Army are present at convoys of every BJP leader visiting West Bengal.
The Ethics Committee of Rajya Sabha headed by veteran Congress leader Karan Singh, decided to give Mallya one week time to explain his conduct.
Besides, the government would also undertake and promote steps for water conservation and curbing extraction of underground water, which is depleting the water table and is a matter of concern, the minister said.
'I will not say that the AIMIM is a 'B' team of the BJP. But due to the AIMIM, the BJP benefits for sure'
Unfazed by the protests against the Act, Shah challenged protesters to oppose the legislation as much as they can. He also asked students who are opposing the legislation to read it properly and understand its meaning.
The issue of lynchings resonated in the Rajya Sabha; while in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition accused the government of not being sensitive towards farmers' issues.
Members in the Lok Sabha on Thursday expressed grave concern over hate crimes against Indians in the United States, with opposition parties questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on the matter and the government saying it was being "viewed seriously".
She said the situation arising out of demonetisation has triggered a sort of constitutional crisis.
'The central learning of the day was that if the BJP leadership can cajole, coax and convince regional parties to vote for bills, it would not be a stretch to see the same votes cast in favour of the land bill,' a senior Congress leader from a northern state told Rediff.com
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is meeting state finance ministers on Thursday to garner support for the Constitution Amendment Bill for a goods & services tax (GST), is likely to immediately dole out about Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion) in Central Sales Tax (CST) compensation to states.
He asserted that the BJP does not carry out any action with a vindictive approach.
On Thursday, the Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha, which allocates time for the Bills and discussions to be taken up for the forthcoming week, met, but the government strategists didn't ask the members to allocate time for the GST Bills for the next week.
A group of students carrying placards and raising slogans protested in the tense University campus on Wednesday morning.
'And because she was very close to Indira Gandhi, she was close to me.' 'Sonia is a wonderful person'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the passage of bills as a "momentous occasion" in parliamentary democracy and said a new dawn awaits the people there as they are now free from the "shackles" of vested interest groups.
Having emerged as the face of opposition resistance to the Narendra Modi juggernaut after the TMC's triumph in the assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is locked in an unequal battle as she squares off with "lightweight" rivals in her own lair--Bhabanipur.
"All opposition parties should work together. It should be a one-to-one fight against the BJP. All opposition parties should help the strongest one in the state against the BJP," Banerjee said.
As many as 51 MPs and MLAs have declared cases of crime against women.
Hijacking of an aircraft will now entail capital punishment in the event of death of "any person" as Parliament on Monday passed a bill to provide widen the ambit of the law in dealing with this crime.
Uncertainty looms over the Insurance Bill as the Congress looks unlikely to support it in the current session of Parliament which is what the Modi government is looking at as a 'gift' to United States President Barrack Obama who comes to India in January. Renu Mittal/Rediff.com reports
In his four years as state party chief, Dilip Ghosh has put his foot in his mouth repeatedly. This hasn't stopped him from getting elected as a legislator in 2016 and as an MP last year.
The family members said the government has reached out to them in 'our time of need and anxiety' and the external affairs minister as well as an official of the ministry had spoken to them in the past two days.
The demand was raised during a debate on the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017 in the Upper House, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on August 2 superseding the amendments earlier carried out by the Rajya Sabha.
The Lower House, showing rare unanimity, passed the Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill to allow the operationalisation of the 1974 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary agreement.
PM Modi said the Centre was not consulted by the Jammu and Kashmir government.
A day after media reports stated that 39 Indians in Iraq had been killed by terrorists belonging to the Islamic State, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Rajya Sabha said that there was no evidence to corroborate the same.
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