Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu convenes meeting of leaders of all parties

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu yesterday convened a meeting of the leaders of all parties at his residence in New Delhi. He sought their cooperation for the smooth conduct of the Upper House during the Budget Session.

Mr Naidu has also called ensuring submission of reports on Demands for Grants of various ministries by the Department Related Standing Committees well before the Budget is approved by the Parliament. He said, submission of such reports later would not give time for the Government to consider the recommendations made by Committees in respect of various ministries.

The Rajya Sabha Chairman urged the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs to talk to all concerned including Chairmen of various Committees regarding timely submission of reports on Demands for Grants. Mr Naidu said, he would also speak to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in this regard. The leaders who attended the meeting have welcomed the suggestion of the Rajya Sabha Chairman. He reminded the leaders of the good work done by the Rajya Sabha during the last two Sessions in terms of the productivity and quality of debates. He urged them to ensure the same positive momentum during the Budget Session.

Mr Naidu said that Budget Session offers ample opportunities to raise and discuss all issues of wider public concern during the long debates on the Motion of Thanks to the President for his Address at the Joint



Session and the Budget discussion. He also advised leaders to ensure that Members belonging to respective parties come prepared to make effective contribution to the debates in the House. He also voiced his concern over inadequate attendance during the proceedings of the House and in the meetings of various committees. Mr Naidu noted that a situation of lack of quorum should not arise as it reflects poorly on the functioning of legislatures.

Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh, Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Thawar Chand Gehlot, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Prahlad Joshi, Union Ministers Dr S Jai Shankar, Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal, Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party, Derek O Brien of TMC, Sanjay Rout of Shiv Sena, Tiruchi Siva of DMK, Prasanna Acharya of BJD, R.C.P. Singh of JDU, Balvinder Bhundar of SAD, Dr. K. Keshava Rao of TRS, T.K. Radhakrishnan of CPI (M), Binoy Vishwom of CPI, Vaiko of MDMK and V. Vijaysai Reddy of YSRCP.

While assuring cooperation of the Opposition in transacting legislative business, Mr Azad said that Government should be willing to accommodate their concerns and enable various issues of public concern to be discussed in the House. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Prahlad Joshi said that Government is always willing to discuss any issue as decided by the Chairman.