 "Food and Insurance bill not taken up in Parliament")
On a day when all eyes were on the Food Security bill with UPA’s pet scheme slated to be taken up for discussion today in the Lok Sabha, the equally important Insurance bill was listed in the upper house. By the end of the day, none of the two bill were taken up- disruptions over Telangana stalled the Food bill while the Insurance bill was “deferred” in the Rajya Sabha.
Referring to the Insurance bill today, Finance minister P Chidambaram while replying to a discussion on the state of the economy, said it was “lack of consensus” among the Opposition that was holding up the Insurance bill “If all were agreed upon it, I could bring in the bill tomorrow itself,” he told the Opposition benches.
The Congress President Sonia Gandhi was all prepared to speak on the bill but the Opposition benches stated that the din caused by the protesting TDP members, was too much to hear what the Food minister KV Thomas was saying. The bill could not be taken up and will now only come after August 19, as the house breaks for the Independence Day weekend.
The day had started off on a promising note in the Rajya Sabha with Vice Chairman Hamid Ansari responding to member’s objections on his remark alleging that the house was descending into a “Federation of Anarchists.” Members appealed to the chair to reconsider the remark with regard to parliament records.