Lok Sabha adjourned sine die

Lok Sabha adjourned sine die

The Winter Session of the Lok Sabha came to an end on Thursday after passage of the historic Lokpal Bill along with several other crucial legislations but not without tumultuous events due to which half of the session was lost.

The session, which commenced on 22^nd November, also saw the Government suffering embarrassment in the Lower House in the wake of the defeat of the bill for giving constitutional status for the anti-graft ombudsman and turmoil over several issues including FDI in retail.

During the session spread over 24 sittings, 27 bills were introduced and 18 bills were passed which included Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons making the Disclosures Bill, the Life Insurance Corporation (Amendment) Bill and the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill.

Out of the total 400 questions listed, only 41 could be answered orally - an average just 2.05 questions per day.

In her valedictory address, Speaker Meira Kumar said no private member business could be taken up due to forced adjournments of the House and regretted the loss of valuable time due to interruptions.

"In this session, the House sat late for 22 hours and 12 minutes. But regrettably we lost over 76 hours and 21 minutes of time due to interruptions followed by forced adjournments," she said on Thursday.

The session witnessed stalling of House for nearly two weeks over various issues including FDI in retail and the opposition demand for an adjournment motion on the issue of price rise which was later accepted on a mutually acceptable wording.

The NDA boycott of Home Minister P Chidambaram on the 2G issue, Mullaperiyar row and demand for separate Telangana led to tumultuous scenes during the session, which sat for 82 hours and 45 minutes.

The session was extended by three days from 27^th to 29^th December to take up important bills, particularly the Lokpal Bill.

The House had a discussion of an adjournment motion on the situation arising out of money deposited illegally in foreign banks and action being taken against the guilty persons.

The Lok Sabha also adopted a motion, moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal regarding constitution of a committee of both the Houses - the Committee for Welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Rahul accuse Mayawati

Rahul accuses Mayawati of fooling people by removing ministers

Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused her of trying to mislead people by removing "corrupt ministers" when only a month was left to Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. 

"A month before the elections, she is trying to fool the public by removing corrupt ministers," Rahul alleged while addressing a series of public meetings at different places in Bareilly, Shahjahanpur and Pilibhit districts.

The Congress General Secretary alleged that when once the magic elephant eats up funds of a department, Mayawati dismisses the minister concerned accusing him of corruption and replaces him with an even more corrupt minister.

"A few days ago, she dismissed four ministers. Yesterday two more were dismissed and then she handed over the charge of their departments to another minister, who was more corrupt than the ones he had replaced," Rahul alleged.

Accusing CM Mayawati of hiding from the people he alleged, "It seems she is afraid of being amidst dalits and the poor and that is why she stays inside a 40-foot high boundary wall in Lucknow."

The Congress leader alleged that while Mayawati claimed herself to be a leader of dalits, she had not visited a single dalit home in the past five years and lived in her mansion fenced by high walls.He said the food security bill would provide food to the poorest sections of society and ensure that millions of people in UP receive 35 kgs of food grain and avoid starvation.

"Though the greatest beneficiaries would be her dalits, Mayawati considers this a joke..she thinks no one will benefit from it," he alleged.Rahul said his purpose was not to merely win elections, but he wanted to change the face of UP by removing poverty and backwardness.

"Politics means removing backwardness and poverty and Indiraji had done this," he said. Appealing to the people to place trust in Congress and vote for the party he said, "We have people who work, all we need is your trust."