Rs 70 cr burnt for shouting, uproar
On Tuesday too Parliament session began on a stormy note with both Houses adjourned for the morning. The forecast for the Winter Session is that Tuesday will be no different from the other eight working days that preceded when law-makers shouted down each other without transacting any business.
Nine parliamentary days lost means that the nation has lost Rs 70.8 crore. For what? For uproar, shouting and disrupting the proceedings in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
The expenditure for each day of a session is calculated at Rs.7.8 crore. Though the offices in Parliament works round the year, the expenditure per day goes up when the sessions are in progress. This includes special staff being deployed for conducting the sessions.
Though the FDI in retail is not in, the losses due to disruptions are mounting. Barring the first day of the ongoing winter session that began November 9, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have not functioned normally for even one full day to transact legislative business.
According to official figures, the total budget of the two houses of Parliament and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for 2010-11 is nearly Rs.535 crore.
The ruling and opposition parties blame each other for the stalemate and the consequent loss of time and public money. While the UPA is adamant on not having a voting on a debate on FDI, the BJP is firm that there should be a voting because just a debate would be meaningless.
Said Congress MP Ashwani Kumar: "Parliament is a forum for debate. The government is prepared to discuss all issues. The opposition is seeking to destroy essential pillar of constitutional morality by making Parliament dysfunctional."
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy retorted saying India has an economist heading the government and he should be more sensitive to the loss incurred due to stance adopted by his government.
"The PM (Manmohan Singh) should be more forthcoming... The basic suspicions on 2G spectrum scam are disturbing for the nation. The solution is in transparency," Ruddy said.
Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Dasgupta said his party did not want Parliament to be disrupted but the "government is so adamant".
"It is ignoring joint voice of the opposition," Dasgupta said.
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