March 22, 2011 2:14 PM

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Opposition stalls Parliament proceedings over ‘cash for votes’ issue

The Opposition on Tuesday stalled proceedings in both Houses of Parliament pressing for a debate on the issue of alleged cash for votes in 2008 trust vote. While the Opposition stressed for taking up the issue before the approval of finance bill in the Lok Sabha, the government maintained that its approval in a time bound manner is a must to complete the Constitutional formalities. The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had made a statement in the House last week in the wake of Wikileaks expose. The opposition alleged that the government has misled the house on the issue. The Lok Sabha was adjourned till 12.30 after uproar on the issue. Earlier, the Speaker Mrs. Meira Kumar informed the House that the Privilege motion given by the Leader of the Opposition is under her consideration. The motion has been moved against the Prime Minister's statement for what they called misleading the House on the cash for vote issue. After laying the papers and introduction of the Bill, there were heated exchanges between the Treasury and opposition benches when Congress member Jagdambika Pal raised a point of order that such a motion has not to be given publicity in advance. Quoting rules, he accused opposition BJP of giving their move advance publicity. The Senior leader of the BJP Mr. L.K. Advani alleged that the leader of the Opposition is not being given time to speak and this led to washing out of Winter Session of Parliament. The Lok Sabha has now taken up the Finance Bill for discussion and approval after the Opposition staged a walk out. The Rajya Sabha was adjourned twice on the same issue. The leader of the Opposition Mr. Arun Jaitley wanted to know what happen to his notices – one for the discussion and the other on the privilege against the Prime Minister. Responding to this, Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan said that the Chairman is seized of the matter and this led to uproar between the Treasury and opposition benches leading to the adjournment of the House. When the House met again there was no change in the situation and the House was adjourned till 2 P.M.

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