Opposition attacks govt for silence on coming week's agenda in Parliament

NEW DELHI: The government faced flak in the Lok Sabha on Friday for not deciding on the coming week's business in the House, which is usually the norm. There was no business advisory committee (BAC) meeting this week even as one was scheduled for Thursday.

Opposition benches complained that the government had not circulated any agenda, just before the LS was to take up the private members bill at 3.30pm.

Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy raised a point of order to attract the attention of the chair to say that there was no communication from the government on next week's business so that the Opposition could prepare for it. Interestingly, TMC MP Ratna De Nag, who was in the chair when Roy raised the issue, said it was "only a convention to provide agenda and not mandatory for the government".

Soon after Roy, Congress leader of the House Mallikarjun Kharge also raised the issue asking, "if the government does not follow either Rule or convention then what is the government doing?" Kharge had raised the issue in the Zero Hour also.

Roy had been earlier seen confabulating with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and later with Kharge. Till Friday evening, the agenda for Monday was not listed on the Lok Sabha website.

Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Prakash Javdekar, however, told reporters that government plans to bring the Insurance Bill in Rajya Sabha on Monday and will bring the SEBI bill in Lok Sabha sometime next week. He also mentioned that in Rajya Sabha there will be discussions on the working of three ministries.

Two short duration discussions had been shortlisted for the Upper House on natural calamities and media.