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Parliament to be prorogued

NEW DELHI: A recommendation by the Cabinet to President Pratibha Patil to prorogue both Houses of Parliament will be made shortly, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi told reporters on Wednesday soon after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.

Putting to rest all speculations that the government was thinking of continuing the second part of the 14th session of the 14th Lok Sabha in February, Mr. Ravi said there was no question of continuing the last session.

Since it would be the first session of the House in the New Year, as was the normal practice, the President would address the joint sitting of the two Houses sometime around mid-February.

Mr. Ravi’s ministerial colleague in Parliamentary Affairs, Pawan Bansal, who is also the Minister of State for Finance, told reporters that the “normal practice” was that a vote-on-account would be taken for four months and a full budget would then be presented by the new government, keeping in mind that the present government would be in office for less than two months of the new fiscal starting April 1.

“When elections are to be held so soon after the new fiscal year sets in, it is normal to have a vote-on-account,” Mr. Bansal said.

Responding to criticism that Parliament had met for just around 50 days this year, Mr. Ravi said it was regrettable that a lot of precious time was wasted on disruptions.

“Parliament is meant for legislative business. That is its constitutional obligation. If one or the other of the 40 and more political parties in the House chooses to disrupt the proceedings for one reason or another, Parliament will not be able to perform its main function. We want Parliament to function smoothly, but the Opposition began disrupting Parliament from day one of this government. We would be happy if Parliament met for at least 100 days a year,” Mr. Ravi said.

He said that when government business was listed, the prime function of Parliament was to ensure that business was discharged. He said he was “not happy” that some legislation had to be pushed through the din on the last day of the session.

Minister for Minority Affairs A.R. Antulay made a statement inside and outside the House and he came out with a clarification that he was not questioning the fact that the former chief of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad Hemant Karkare was killed by terrorists, and yet the Opposition used that issue to stall Parliament, he said.

Three major debates took place – on the Mumbai terror attacks following which the House expressed the nation’s solidarity and determination to fight terrorism; the terrorist attacks in the north-east; and the impact on India of the financial global meltdown.

Key legislation in December was related to the setting up of the National Investigation Agency and amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The historic Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha in the earlier part of the session before the assembly elections and by the Lok Sabha in December.

The Gram Nyayalayas and Information Technology Bills were passed by both Houses in December.

A Bill to increase the cap of foreign direct investment in the insurance sector to 49 per cent was introduced in the Rajya Sabha, while in the Lok Sabha, a Bill was introduced to increase capitalisation of Life Insurance Corporation.

Mr. Ravi felt that “our friends in the Left” misunderstood the provisions in the LIC Bill and, therefore, opposed it when in fact the government made plain its intention to “invest” Rs. 100 crore more of public funds in LIC to “strengthen it” for the numerous new schemes to be introduced for those in the unorganised sector.

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