Rajya Sabha's advance farewell to 11 MPs

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 9/24/2020 9:40:29 AM

NEW DELHI, Sep 23: Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday bade farewell in advance to 11 members of the House from Uttar Pradesh, including Union Minister of State Hardeep Singh Puri, due for retirement on November 26.
A farewell is given before a members is due to retire, but the Chairman chose to give the farewell early, not expecting the winter session of Parliament to begin before the retirement of these 11 members.
Those retiring are invited to speak, but only Neeraj Shekhar (BJP), son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, was present to give a speech. Even minister Puri did not speak. As the Chairman underlined, some may be back in the House on their re-election and Puri may be one of them.
Those retiring include Samajwadi Party group leader Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav and Raj Babbar and P L Punia of Congress. There are 36 Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh, but only 11 are due for retirement on completion of the 6-year term.
In his valedictory address, Chairman Venkaiah Naidu noted that the Rajya Sabha passed 25 Bills while six others were introduced in just 10 days of the sitting. He did not mention that as many as 15 Bills were passed in a one-sided voting in the past two days because of the boycott by the entire Opposition.
He also read out excerpts from Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and some of the suspended MPs urging him to postpone three crucial labour code bills on Wednesday's agenda to enable them to join the debate in the next session. He rejected the request, saying no precedent to put off the Bills.
Though Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had fixed the sitting on Wednesday only from 6 pm instead of 3 pm to give ample time to the Rajya Sabha to finish its business before adjournment, but there were not enough speakers to speak on the Bills after the Opposition's boycott and so the House was adjourned sine die at 2.10 PM. Prime Minister Modi made it a point to be present in the Rajya Sabha during the Chairman's valedictory address.
The Prime Minister also turned up in the Lok Sabha to join the Vande Mataram tune before the House was adjourned sine die at 8.15 pm. The Speaker threw open the floor on the last day for all members to raise any issue they liked. Just before the adjournment indefinitely, the House passed the Major Port Authorities Bill. Minister Mansukh Mandaviya was replying to the debate when the PM walked in.

 

Video

The Gaza Crisis and the Global Fallout... Read More
 

FACEBOOK

 

Daily horoscope

 

Weather