Cabinet Committee recommends Parliament prorogation Unprecedented number of proposals including the
possibility of draft ordinances on anti-graft bills expected to be
cleared by Cabinet on Friday
The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs on
Wednesday recommended prorogation of Parliament ahead of Friday’s
Cabinet meeting which is scheduled to clear an unprecedented number of
proposals including the possibility of draft ordinances on the pet
anti-graft bills of the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
“It is a choc-o-bloc agenda. I have never known
seen such heavy agenda before the Cabinet. We are working feverishly as
if for the last supper,” a senior Finance Ministry official told The
Hindu. The UPA government is keen on clearing as many proposals as
possible before the expected general election announcement of the
Election Commission after which the Code of Conduct comes into vogue.
Among the items for clearance include 54 new Kendriya Vidyalayas and
GSLV-Mark III.
Marathon Cabinet meeting expected
With the schedule for the Lok Sabha likely to be
announced on Saturday, the UPA government is working “feverishly” on a
record number of announcements, appointments and initiatives before the
model code of conduct kicks in.
The Cabinet meeting on Friday is expected to be a
“marathon” one as it will be the last opportunity for the government to
take policy decisions as well as ‘populist’ sops, top Finance Ministry
sources told The Hindu.
The proposals lined up for Friday’s Cabinet include
54 new Kendriya Vidalayas, space programme GSLV-Mark III, a six-lane
bypass for Delhi, terms of reference for the 7 Pay Commission which was
set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently.
It is expected to consider Rs. 3,500 crore budget for
new broadcasting infrastructure for All India Radio and Doordarshan,
10-per cent Dearness Allowance for government employees and 600 MW
hydro-power projects in Bhutan. The dearness allowance hike to 100 per
cent from the existing 90 per cent is expected to benefit to benefiting
50 lakh employees and 30 lakh pensioners.
Officials believe some more items could be put on the
block-buster agenda. A Cabinet Minister told The Hindu that the
government expects the Election Commission to announce the general
election schedule on Saturday or latest by Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment