Rajya Sabha fails to take up Finance, Appropriation bills

New Delhi, May 10 (IANS) The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday once again witnessed chaos and could not take up the Finance and Appropriation bills for discussion as planned.

The Finance Bill and the Appropriation Bill have already been passed by the Lok Sabha and are to discussed and passed in the Rajya Sabha before being returned to the Lok Sabha.

The Finance Bill could not be discussed on Monday as the upper house was disrupted by Congress members protesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alleged naming of party president Sonia Gandhi in the AgustaWestland chopper deal scandal.

As the house assembled after the lunch break on Tuesday, Congress members raised slogans against the central government over the Uttarakhand issue. They shouted slogans like "dictatorship of Modi government will not be tolerated".

Opposition leader in the house, Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government must apologise over the Uttarakhand issue.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi tried to pacify the agitating members but they did not listen to him.

On this, the minister said that the Congress must refrain from "murdering democracy".

The minister also urged the chair to take up discussion even while there was agitation, but K.C. Tyagi of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) said it would be difficult to discuss anything in the house as it was not in order.

Some of the members were also of the view that since the house was not in order, the bills could be taken up on Wednesday, but Deputy Chair P.J. Kurien asked where is the guarantee that they will allow the bills to be discussed the following day.

Kurien also said the Rajya Sabha will get the bills passed on Wednesday even if there is no discussion on them.

Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha on Monday moved the Finance Bill in the Rajya Sabha for discussion. Sinha also moved the Appropriation Bill.

Amidst chaos, Deputy Chairman Kurien adjourned the house for 15 minutes, and when it met again at 3.02 p.m. the same scenes were witnessed. He then adjourned the house till 4 p.m. When the house reassembled, Kurien adjourned the proceedings till Wednesday, saying the all important bills will be discussed the following day.