Govt not ready to table Lokpal Bill on Wednesday

Pressing for tabling of the Lokpal Bill on Wednesday itself in the Rajya Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left sought to corner the government which was not ready for immediate discussion on it.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal instead asked for taking up the Whistleblowers' Bill on Wednesday, so that the House can have scheduled eight-hour discussion on the Lokpal Bill on Thursday.

But, the Opposition did not agree and insisted that the Lokpal Bill should be taken up first. "We have been waiting for the Lokpal Bill since 2 pm but till now, there is no

supplementary agenda," BJP senior leader S S Ahluwalia said soon after the House approved the Constitutional Amendment Bill on granting autonomy to cooperative institutions.

Amid heated arguments between Bansal and the Opposition, Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan adjourned the House a little earlier than 5 pm.

Ahluwalia said the winter session was extended for a particular purpose and "we are waiting", amid uproar by the party members for not taking up the Whistleblowers' Bill on Wednesday.

He was supported Sitaram Yechury (Communist party of India-Marxist)."If Whistleblowers' Bill is taken up on Wednesday, discussion will extend till Thursday and then we will not get eight hours for Lokpal Bill, unless you extend the house (further)".

At this point, Ahluwalia interjected saying , "who will agree for it (futher extension)". It was finally announced by Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan that the bills would be taken up tomorrow, to which the Opposition members said, "one after the other".

The pleas of Bansal and his ministerial colleague V Narayanasamy for taking the Whistleblowers' Bill on Wednesday itself went unheard. The United Progressive Alliance does not have a majority in the 243-member Upper House.