House logjam over 2G costs nation Rs 95 crore

The government has,however,refused to yield to the demand,leading to a deadlock because of which Parliament has been unable to function for more than 10 minutes per day on an average.

According to official figures,the total budget for Lok Sabha for the current fiscal year is Rs 347.65 crore while it is Rs 172.33 crore for Rajya Sabha.

The Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs,responsible for the functioning of Parliament,also has a separate budget of Rs 7.47 crore,taking the combined allocation to Rs 527.45 crore.

This includes salaries and other allowances of MPs,Speaker and Deputy Speaker of both the Houses,the expenditure incurred for the member’s foreign visits and meeting the expenses for foreign delegations visiting India.

In a year,Parliament meets thrice — for the Budget,Monsoon and Winter session. As per the business schedule of both the Houses,there should be a total of 83 sittings this financial year — 35 sittings during the Budget session and 24 each in the other two sessions.

This means,on average the government is spending Rs 6.35 crore per day to run the institution.

Today is the 15th consecutive day of the Winter session that ended without doing any business,which means that Rs 95.25 crore were spent without Parliament transacting any substantive business.

2010-11

Allocation for women and child development hiked by 80Rs 100 cr woman farmer fund scheme

I propose to step up the plan outlay for Women and Child Development by almost 50 per cent. Several new initiatives that were launched in 2009-10 are now ready for implementation. A mission for empowerment of women is being set up. The ICDS platform is being expanded for effective implementation of the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Adolescent Girls.

To further improve female literacy rate,the Government has recast the earlier National Literacy Mission as a new programme “Saakshar Bharat”. It was launched in September,2009 with a target of 7 crore non-literate adults which includes 6 crore women.

A Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana to meet the specific needs of women farmers is being launched. I have provided Rs.100 crore for this initiative as a sub-component of the National Rural Livelihood Mission.

Allocation for women and child development hiked by 80 per cent.

China charges Oz travel company boss with embezzlement

Sydney

The Australian boss of a travel company based in southern China has been charged with embezzlement,foreign ministry officials in Canberra said today,stressing their “strong interest” in his case.

Et-China chief executive Matthew Ng was formally charged on Tuesday,a foreign office spokeswoman said,two weeks after he was detained in the southern city of Guangzhou on suspicion of “misappropriating company assets”.

“The Australian Government is monitoring developments closely to ensure due legal process is followed,” the spokeswoman said.

“The Australian consulate-general in Guangzhou has raised the Australian government’s strong interest in the case at senior levels of the Guangdong (provincial) government,” she added.

Ng’s case comes just months after four employees of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto,including Australian passport-holder Stern Hu,were jailed in China on bribery and trade secrets charges.

The spokeswoman stressed that Ng’s charges “relate to embezzlement and are very different to the ones faced by Mr Hu,which related to bribery and theft of commercial secrets.”

Hu’s trial strained relations between Beijing and Canberra,and stoked concerns among foreign investors about the rule of law in China.

Consular officials had visited Ng last month and would see him again on December 7,the spokeswoman said,adding that officials would “continue to monitor his welfare”.

London-listed Et-China issued a statement in support of Ng following his detention and said it would be seeking “an early resolution of this matter to enable him to resume his role as chief executive officer as soon as possible”.

Chinese media have said Ng’s detention could be linked to his role in Et-China’s acquisition of domestic travel agency GZL,one of the largest leisure travel companies in southern China.

Et-China was reportedly involved in a legal battle with Lingnan Group,a Guangzhou government-owned travel company,over control of GZL.