Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will lead a 36-member all-party parliamentary delegation on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir beginning next Monday. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal will also be assisting the home minister. He will be alternate leader of the delegation.
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.
However, the final decision on the date of presentation of the Budget will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.
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 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.
A move is afoot to extend the session of Parliament by three days from December 27 to 29 after a five day break from December 22, when it was scheduled to conclude, to facilitate adequate time for consideration of the Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal Bill is expected to be brought in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has sounded Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Party leader L K Advani on the move and has promised to get back.
Union minister for parliamentary affairs and water resources Pawan Kumar Bansal, on Thursday claimed that the situation on the ground water was not as grave as is made out to be by certain sections of the media.
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.
Setting the stage for confrontation in Parliament, an all-party meeting called in New Delhi on the eve of the monsoon session on Monday ended in a deadlock over controversies related to the Lalit Modi and Vyapam scam even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to discuss all issues. The government ruled out any resignations.
