Rajya Sabha chairperson rebukes absentee Ministers, House adjourned till Monday

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha chairperson M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday rebuked absentee Ministers who were supposed to lay papers on the table and gave time to both the ruling and opposition members to arrive at a consensus to run the House normally. He later adjourned the House till Monday.

Rebuking the absentee Ministers who had to lay papers on the table, Naidu warned them that such things will not be allowed in future. Soon after the Rajya Sabha embarked on the day's business, Naidu started calling out names of the MPs from the ruling side one by one for them to lay papers on the table.

Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Singh Patel, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Krishna Pal, V. Muralidharan, Pankaj Choudhary, Anupriya Singh Patel, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Kailash Choudhary, Devi Singh Chouhan among others laid respective papers on the table of the House. V. Muralidharan and Anupriya Patel had presented the papers on behalf of their fellow members.

Stating his observation, Naidu said, "The Ministers, who are supposed to lay papers on the table of the House, having given notice to the chair, they should not be absent in the House."

"In extreme circumstances, there would be occasions, if there is any problem, they must approach the chair in advance and then seek permission. Some of them are doing it, but others are thinking it is casual. It cannot be casual, it cannot be usual; I will not allow such things in future," he said, adding, "Leader of the House is here, also the Parliamentary Affairs Minister. I hope they take notice. I am not objecting to others' laying it on their behalf with prior notice and prior permission. This has to be kept in mind."

Later, when one by one, various members of the House presented reports of the Parliamentary Standing Committees from different Ministries, Naidu appreciated T.G. Venkatesh and Jairam Ramesh, who, he said, "hold lots of regular meetings and give timely reports."

Various members presented the reports pertaining to Parliamentary Committee Standing Committees after which V. Muralidharan, MoS for Parliamentary affairs, moved a motion that was passed by voice vote.

Soon after, Naidu said, "Today, I had a talk with the leader of the House and also some senior members of the opposition. I would like to appeal to each one of you, please arrive at some sort of consensus, see that the House functions normally. In order to facilitate discussion among yourselves (sic), I am adjourning the House to meet on Monday."

Since November 29, when 12 MPs were suspended, opposition parties have been demanding revoking of the suspension, staging protests and in general disrupting the proceedings of the House before staging walkouts. Naidu had suspended the 12 MPs for their unruly behaviour in the previous session.