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

Both Houses of the Parliament were adjourned again till noon on Friday as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led opposition stuck to its demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation. The month-long Monsoon Session, which began on August 8, has been one of the least productive sessions in the history of Parliament - only six of the 31 bills listed could be passed as logjam over coal scam paralysed the House. The session, which usually starts in July, got delayed due to the presidential election on July 19 and the vice presidential poll on August 7. Among the crucial bills, which passed in Parliament are the Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill and a bill to create six AIIMS-like premier medical institutes across the country. Of 15 bills listed for introduction, just five were introduced. Of the 108 hours that the Lok Sabha was scheduled to meet, it worked for just 24 hours and the Rajya Sabha worked for 26 of 90 hours. The coal scandal has dominated this session of Parliament after the CAG report said that the under-priced sales of coalfields would have cost the national exchequer as much as 33 billion dollars in lost revenues. The BJP is demanding the resignation of Dr. Singh since he headed the Coal Ministry between 2006 and 2009, when many of the sales occurred. However, Dr. Singh had rejected the CAG's observations as 'misleading' and 'flawed', and blamed the opposition parties for thwarting the efforts of his government to bring a policy of competitive bidding. Dr. Singh also ruled out any possibility of quitting as Prime Minister despite the BJP firm on its demand for his resignation over the coal blocks allocation issue.

Parliament adjourned till noon over coalgate