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April 28, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report April 28, 2001 |
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Rs 75 million lost in the shortest Budget sessionBS Political Bureau Taxpayers' money worth Rs 75 million was lost by the Lok Sabha in the shortest ever Budget session in the country's history, which came to a close on Friday. Disruptions in Parliament cost 73 hours and 49 minutes of its working time. While the MPs drew full salary and allowances for the session, of the 43 bills listed for clearance, only 15 were passed. The Railway Budget, about which some Lok Sabha members were so exercised that they heckled then railway minister Mamata Banerjee while she was presenting it, was passed in a few hours, virtually without discussion. The fate of the Rs 37500-billion general Budget was little better. It was passed in a day after Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi made it clear that he did not want to become the first presiding officer in the country's parliamentary history to allow passage of the Finance Bill without discussion. A pained Balayogi, who addressed a press conference on Friday on the Budget session, reeled out statistics to prove that disruption of parliamentary proceedings causes irreparable damage to the polity. In economic terms too, the cost was high, Balayogi said. The Indian taxpayer pays Rs 17,000 per minute to keep the Lok Sabha in session. The annual budgetary provision for Parliament is around Rs 1.95 billion. The Congress' adamant demand for a joint parliamentary committee to probe the Tehelka disclosures, the government's refusal to accede to it and a general breakdown of consensus led Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to write to the leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, seeking an end to the impasse. However, Vajpayee's initiative came late in the day and a session that normally extends over three months and 41 sittings ended after just 16 sittings. Another precedent set was curtailment of the session (by eight working days) to help members take part in campaigning for state Assembly elections. Though the Speaker described it as a one-time deviation, senior members of the House feel that the move could stultify parliamentary proceedings. The Lower House tried to make up for lost time by sitting late for 21 hours and 54 minutes. But these extended sittings could deal only with the financial business of the House and a host of important bills, including the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management bill, Bank Nationalisation (Amendment) Bill, Money Laundering Bill and GIC Nationalisation Bill, could not be taken up for discussion. Powered by YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
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