Ministers draw ire of Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu for being absent

NEW DELHI: Modi government's ministers were yet again found absent while laying papers on the table of the Rajya Sabha, drawing the ire of House Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday.

Within days of reprimanding members for being absent in the House, the upper house Chairman said that ministers being absent after giving notice is not acceptable.

"Ministers giving the notice to lay papers in their names on the table of the House and not being present in the House is not acceptable," Naidu said warning them.

He said that ministers should meet the Chairman and explain why they could not make it to the House after giving a notice. The Chairman said that the ministers had every right to get postponements of the items for which they gave notice but after going ahead with it and then being absent was not good.

As many as 12 papers were listed in the name of various ministers on Monday but some of them were found absent. It could not be ascertained if they had sought permission from the Chairman for absence.

As soon as the House met for the day on Monday and ministers were asked to lay papers listed against their names, Shripad Yesso Naik laid the paper listed in the name of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Babul Supriyo, the Minister of State in Environment Ministry, laid the paper on the table listed against the senior Minister Prakash Javadekar.

Last week, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu had pulled up members for skipping meetings of the Parliamentary Standing Committees. It had been earlier found that only 18 members attended all the 41 meetings of the eight Parliamentary panels since their reconstitution in September.

On finding many members absent while starred questions were listed against their names, the Chairman had also expressed his dismay and urged them not to repeat it.