All hopes of any further legislative work in the rest of the session of Parliament were put to rest today.
Today both Houses were adjourned for the fourth day on the petrol pump scam after functioning for less than five minutes each. Rajya Sabha acting chairman, Najma Heptullah is toying with the idea of adjourning the Upper House sine die on August 12 itself, after the election of the vice-president.
The Lok Sabha Speaker, Manohar Joshi, will clear financial business through voice vote and end the session on 14 August.
More From This Section
In doing so, Parliament will have lost a total of nine working days on the petrol pump allottment logjam.
The Opposition is demanding that petroleum minister Ram Naik resign for allotting petrol pumps to RSS and BJP workers.
The government has announced it has cancelled all allotments and is determined not to give in any more on the issue.
That the MPs were not in a mood to work was clear after a workshop for the MPs, to have been inaugurated by the President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, on August 13 and 14 was postponed because MPs said they would be busy with flag hoisting ceremonies in their constituencies. Parliament sources said that it was not customary to issue whips for the election of vice president, so it gave the Mps an extended weekend from August 9 to 14, the last day of the session, to attend to constituency matters if they so wished, without being constrained with considerations such as passing bills.
A number of bills were to have been discussed and passed by Parliament. TV sets all over the country went blank ten days ago after cable TV operators demanded that the Conditional Access Bill be passed by the Rajya Sabha.
The Bill was listed for this week. It will now have to wait till the next session.
The Offshore Areas Mineral (development) Bill was also been discussed this week.
Some Appropriations were to have been passed by the upper house. All this will not happen now. New bills to be discussed - like the Fiscal Responsibility Act for instance - have no chance at all till the next session.
The government has told presiding officers in both houses that ordinances will be issued to replace legislative business that is urgent.
No meetings between the PM and leaders of opposition are scheduled. The total number of bills cleared by both houses is well below double digit.