Somnath appeals to NDA again

He asked the whole House to join him in his appeal to ‘‘our friends on the left side’’. As soon as he concluded, leader of the House and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee also requested the Opposition to end the boycott.

Aiyar’s smile as large as PC’s frown

: The happiness of the Petroleum Minister is in direct proportion to the unhappiness of the Finance Minister, or so feels Mani Shankar Aiyar.

‘‘The smile on my face is as large as the frown on the Finance Minister’s face,’’ Aiyar said in the Rajya Sabha during question hour. He was responding to a supplementary from T. Subbarami Reddy (Cong) as to why Aiyar was reportedly unhappy.

Bill on security agencies passed

After debating for two hours, the Upper House on Tuesday passed the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Bill, 2005, to streamline the activities of security agencies mushrooming all over the country. A Cong member put the number of such agencies at 20,000.

The bill proposes to bring private security agencies under a Controlling Authority in every state, which would issue licences and review them every five years. The bill had been first introduced in 1994.

Once the legislation is passed, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said, holding of licences will become mandatory for these agencies.

However, the Congress objected to one provision of the bill which involves ‘‘inspection of licence’’ comparing it with Income-Tax raids.

Extend RTI bill to pvt sector: LS

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday suggested that the Right to Information Bill, which provides for easy access to government information, should be extended to the private sector and criticised the Opposition for not being present to discuss the landmark legislation.

CPI(M)’s Shamik Lahiri said: ‘‘Considering after liberalisation, the private sector is playing a crucial role, it is important that transparency and access to information should be extended to corporate governance.’’

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri said it would bring accountability among the bureaucracy and transparency in governance. The bill will be considered tomorrow.

Charities under tax scanner

Charitable institutions will come under the Income Tax department’s scanner once the government passes a new bill to amend the tax laws. Finance minister P. Chidambaram told the Rajya sabha on Tuesday that the bill will be brought before Parliament in the current session. He, however, ruled out a suggestion by RSP’s Manoj Bhattacharya to bring marriage expenses under the ambit of the bill. ‘‘If we empower the tax department more, it could become intrusive and then you will protest,’’ the minister said.

Bill to prevent WMD proliferation

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha which seeks to prevent the proliferation of WMDs. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee overruled objections by CPI(M) MPs Rupchand Pal, Basudeb Acharia and Mohammad Salim to the introduction of the bill.

The bill would provide a legislative basis to India’s commitment to prevent proliferation of WMDs. In addition, the envisaged control over the export of WMD-usable material would also fulfil India’s obligations under the UN Security Council resolution adopted in April last.

‘Forest-dwellers won’t be evicted’

Replying to a calling attention motion moved by Congress’ Madhusudan Mistry, Environment and Forests Minister A. Raja on Tuesday said the government has asked the states and Union Territories not to evict tribal people from forestland till their land rights were determined. — ENS