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Journalism of Courage
Having to put on hold its plans for having a discussion in Parliament on WTO, provident fund rates, tribal rights and farmers issues following repeated adjournments on Natwar Singh’s involvement in the Iraqi Oil for Food programme, the Left parties have accused the BJP of needlessly stalling both Houses and wasting public money.
According to CPI MPs Gurudas Dasgupta, Ajay Chakraborty and Sudhakar Reddy, the cost per hour of running Parliament was Rs 11,22,829 and 62 hours have been lost till December 2, since the beginning of the year, or close to Rs 7 crore. Parliament was scheduled to meet for 85 days this session, and with 14 days to go, had already lost 10 days in this session due to adjournments.
Dasgupta said the demand for Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s resignation from the National Advisory Council was untenable because the Volcker report had mentioned the Congress party and not her.
‘‘If the Congress has been named, they should bring in a vote of no confidence against the government. Asking for Sonia Gandhi’s resignation, inter alia means they want the government to go,’’ Dasgupta said.
