By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: With Opposition MPs upping the ante against the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha members, the government has reiterated that the decision can be revoked only if they express regret.
The government wants to get a number of legislative bills passed and the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Prahlad Joshi on Tuesday said suspended MPs are being reached out.
Opposition MPs after a protest march demandingrevocation of the suspension of 12 Rajya SabhaMPs, at Parliament premises on Tuesday | parveen negiJoshi said contacts are being made with suspended MPs on an individual basis.
He, however, maintained that the suspended MPs have to at least to express regret for their actions in the monsoon session in order to force a reconsideration of the decision to suspend them from the winter session of Parliament.
Responding to charges of the Opposition that the Rajya Sabha continues to conduct business despite din in the House, Joshi said that a number of MPs from the Opposition benches have also submitted requests for raising issues during the Zero Hour.
The suspension of 12 MPs had also come up during the meeting of the BJP parliamentary party last week, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi making mention of the fact that the country had seen what these members of the Upper House had done.
With just seven days left of the winter session, the government is keen to find a solution to the Rajya Sabha ruckus to get legislative business on track.
Unlike Rajya Sabha, which continues to face pandemonium and disruptions leading to adjournments, Lok Sabha is functioning smoothly, with all businesses being carried out. The House sits till late evening on a regular basis.
CBI, ED chief tenure extension bill passed
Parliament on Tuesday passed two bills to extend the tenure of the chiefs of Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate to a maximum of five years from two years, with Rajya Sabha approving them by voice vote amid a walkout by the opposition.
Speaker chides ministers for cross-talking
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla chided two ministers for indulging in cross-talks. Birla asked Giriraj Singh to refrain from taking the House as his office.
He chided another minister for speaking after the Chair announced that Question Hour was over.
No addition to SC list in last three years
A total of 1,258 castes have so far been specified as Scheduled Castes, and no community has been included in the list in the last three years, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar told Lok Sabha in response to a question on Tuesday.
