India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Both Houses of Parliament were on Tuesday adjourned for the day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led opposition stalled proceedings over the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report on coal block allocations and demanded Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's resignation. Proceedings in the Parliament were earlier in the day adjourned till noon over the CAG report. As soon as the Lok Sabha met for the day, opposition members trooped into the well raising slogans to pin down the government on the basis of the CAG reports. Similar scenes were witness in the Rajya Sabha also as the entire opposition led by BJP leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and M. Venkaiah Naidu and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Shivanand Tiwari were on their feet and raised slogans as soon as the house assembled. BJP leaders including Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley met at senior leader L.K. Advani's residence here on Monday evening to firm up the party's strategy to pin down the government on the basis of the CAG report. "Our leaders in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, had sought resignation of Prime Minister on Friday (August 17) in the light of coal scam. We are going to raise this issue in Parliament in a big way tomorrow," senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told mediapersons after the meeting yesterday. The BJP has held the Prime Minister responsible for what has been estimated as loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crores by the CAG in coal block allocation and demanded his resignation. The CAG report on coal block allocation states that nearly 150 coalfields were allotted to private and state-run firms without transparency and objectivity between 2005 and 2009. The report does not indict the Prime Minister or his office, but the BJP is emphasizing on the fact that for three of the years under scrutiny, the Prime Minister held direct charge of the Coal Ministry.

Parliament adjourned after uproar over Coalgate