The seventh meeting of Women Speakers on Gender Sensitive Parliaments concluded today in New Delhi by adopting an Outcome Document. This document recognizes the vital role of women speakers in spearheading the movement for establishing gender senstive parliaments and society. Speaking to media persons, the Lok Sabha Speaker Miera Kumar said, the resoution in the Outcome Document will be put before the Inter Parliamentary Union, IPU conference to be held later this month.

She said discussions were held on every aspect of gender senstivity in Parliaments including capacity building of Parliaments and specific role of speakers to address gender issues. She said creating a gender sensitive parliamentary environment and work modalities and infrastructure were also discussed in the two day meet.

President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Abdelwahad Radi, said he firmly believed that through women's participation society could be transformed in general and institutions of governance in particular in order to achieve greater equality and equity.

 An amount of over twenty six thousand crore rupees has been released till the end of last month under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development scheme, MPLAD, since its inception in 2004. Out of this, over twenty three thousand crore rupees have been utilized for development works so far.

An official release said, the scheme has benefited the local community by meeting various development needs like drinking water facility, education, health and family welfare, community centres, irrigation and roads.

The utilization percentage of funds has risen steadily to 89 per cent by 31st August this year as compared to 82 per cent in March 2004. More than 12 lakh development works have been completed till date as against thirteen and a half lakh works sanctioned since the scheme began. The percentage of works completed was 89 per cent on 31st August.

President Pranab Mukherjee has asked political parties to evolve a mechanism to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament. o my god this never happen when u are leader of house.The President who is on a two-day visit to Tirumala was speaking to reporters Sunday morning.

Responding to a question on monsoon session of Parliament concluding without much business, he said both ruling and opposition parties should resolve their differences in a way in which the institution of Parliament function well.

Exuding confidence that the country will overcome the present difficulties such as petrol prices, Mr. Mukherjee emphasised the need for instilling confidence among the stake holders of economy.

The President later visited the 130-year old Sri Venkateswara Vedic School at Dharmagiri and honoured meritorious students.

He also inaugurated the 320-room Nandakam, a rest house complex built at a cost of 36 crore rupees which can accommodate 1700 pilgrims at a time. 

Earlier, the President offered prayers at lord Venkateswara Swami of Tirumala and Godess Padmavati at Tiruchanoor.

 Pune serial blast, grids failure, ethnic violence in Assam, flash floods in the Himalayan region are likely to figure prominently during the discussions.

n Kuwait, the new cabinet led by the Prime Minister Shaikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Sabah has decided to reinstate the 2009 parliament. The newly appointed cabinet in its first meeting approved decrees to implement the Supreme Constitutional Court Orders to reconvene the session of 2009 parliament . The court had held the February 2012 parliamentary elections invalid, scrapped the parliament and reinstated the 2009 legislative assembly. 

The court in its ruling on June 20 ruled had held unconstitutional the decree issued by the Emir of Kuwait to dissolve the then parliament and hold elections in February 2012. The Kuwait parliament speaker , Jasem Al Khorafi said that the session would be convened on July 31. In case there is a lack of quorum, a second session would be called on August 7. A failure to hold a parliamentary session could result in the dissolution of the parliament and in calls for fresh elections. Media reports suggest that the dissolution of the 2009 parliament would be announced in mid-August and that fresh elections may be held in early October.

The Parliamentary panel on Goods and Services tax (GST) is expected to submit final report before the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers Sushilkumar Modi today said in New Delhi that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance will start deliberations from June 8th on the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill. He said that Committee Chairman Yashwant Sinha has assured him to complete deliberations and prepare the report before the Monsoon session.

However, Modi refused to set a deadline for GST rollout, saying, states have many apprehensions about the actual import of the new common tax regime. Calling for more interaction between the Centre and the states to resolve the differences, Modi said the Centre is yet to assure the states on fiscal autonomy, powers to fix tax rates and impose levies, compensating the states for their revenue loss and establishing a dispute settlement authority.

Modi pointed out that the GST network or the technology platform for the new common tax regime, which will make the country a single market enabling easier and cheaper movement of goods and services, will be in place by August.

Nepal’s Supreme Court has issued a show cause notice to the government over the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and the announcement of fresh elections .

The bench has also called for written clarification from the government with in ten days.

The single bench of the Apex court of Justice Tahir Ali Ansari has said a special bench should hear the matter as it bore serious constitutional questions and public concern and has drawn the attention of the Chief Justice towards the matter.

A writ was filed by advocate Santosh Basnet on Tuesday challenging the call for fresh elections .

"The announcement of fresh election by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai following the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly on 27th midnight had raised questions on the legality and constitutionality .

The writ filed by the petitioner has said under article 63 of the Interim Constitution only relates to holding of the Constituent Assembly elections in 2008 an the same provision cannot be used to call another election.

He said that no new election would be possible giving the existing status of the Interim Constitution.

Article 63 of the Interim Constitution has not made any arrangement of holding Constituent Assembly Elections time to time or twice and tens of thousands citizens would be deprived of casting votes when the elections if held on November 22 for the next time as the sub-clause 7 of same Article has stated that the Nepali citizens having aged 18 within December 15, 2004 only has the right to vote .

Only if it is amended the rights of the citizens can be given , however with the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the Parliament- legislature also ceased to exist. "

May 22,  8:54 PM
Both the Houses of Parliament were adjourned sine die today. In her
valedictory remarks in the Lok Sabha, Speaker Meira Kumar said the
House had 34 sittings during the budget session. She said 21 government bills were introduced and in all, 20 bills were passed. She said some of the important bills including the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill 2012, the Copyright Amendment Bill, 2012 and the protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill, 2012 were passed.
The Speaker said five important matters were raised by way of Calling
Attention. They included the situation arising out of incident of
child separation of an Indian couple by the Norway authorities. She
said the House lost over 48 hours 24 minutes of time due to
interruptions and forced its adjournments. However, the House sat late
for 41 hours to compensate the time lost.

In his valedictory remarks in the Rajya Sabha, Chairman Mohammed
Hamid Ansari said the House has worked to its optimal capacity. He,
however, regretted that some time was lost due to disruptions in the
House. Mr Ansari asked the members to introspect on the distinction
between dissent, remonstration, agitation and disruption. The Chairman
said during the session, the House bid farewell to 58 retiring
members. He said 61 members joined the House. He said in all 22 bills
were either passed or returned. He said Short Duration discussions on
three issues including the issue of reservation for Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes in Promotions during service, problem of food
grains storage and normalization of relations with Pakistan and issues
relating Human Rights Violations in Pakistan were taken up. The
Chairman said a unique feature of this session was discussion on two
statutory motions, a device which was used after a very long time.

He said 12 Short Notice questions and two half-an-hour discussions were
also taken up. This, he said is indicative of the alertness of the
members in using various parliamentary devices.

Cine superstar Rekha today took oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha, becoming yet another personality from tinsel town to enter the portals of Parliament. She was greeted with the thumping of desks when her name was called for taking oath.

Eight Congress members from the Telegana region have been suspended from the Lok Sabha for four days. The members were suspended for creating disturbances during their demonstration in the well of the House in support of seperate statehood for Telegana. A resolution to this effect was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister, P.K Bansal and adopted by the Lok Sabha when the House reassembled at 2 pm. Following the suspension of the members, the Chair adjourned the House till 2.30 pm. The suspended members however sat on Dharna in the well of the House. When the House again assembled at 2.30 pm, the situation remained the same and the suspended members continued to shout slogans sitting in the well of the House. When the disturbance continued, the Chair adjourned the House till tommorow.
The suspended members had demonstrated in the House since proceedings began in the morning. The Lok Sabha earlier witnessed three adjounments, first till 12 pm, then till 2pm and then till 2.30 pm before finally adjourning for the day. The suspended member are Ponnam Prabrakar, Madhu Gaud Yaski, Dr. Manda Jagannath, G. Sukhindra Reddy, K.R.G Reddy, Rajaiyya Siricilla, P. Balram Naik, and Dr, Gaddam Vivekanand.

A multi-party Parliamentary delegation will be visiting Sri Lanka from 16th to the 21st of April for an on ground assessment of the resettlement of the war affected Tamil civilians and political process in war-torn areas. The Parliamentary delegation is being led by the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj.

During the six day visit, the delegation is expected to travel the length and breadth of the island nation including the war ravaged Northern Province. Parliamentary delegation is expected to tour Jaffna and Kilinochchi in the North where several development projects funded by India, are in progress to assess the resettlement and other needs of the Tamil people.

The delegation will also travel to Kalutara in the South, Batticaloa in the East and Dickoya in Central Sri Lanka. It will speak to all groups of Tamils in Sri Lanka - those in the Northern Province, Eastern Province, and also the up country Indian origin Tamils, who are mostly involved in the tea plantation sector.

The delegation from India is also scheduled to visit the Sri Lankan Parliament and interact with the Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and other Parliamentarians. The MPs will also pay tribute at the IPKF Memorial in Colombo.

he Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday called for more investments in the agriculture sector to boost the country’s food security. Mr. Mukherjee said for the first time, India has produced more than one hundred million tones of rice. He said this could not be possible without investment in agricultural extension services and research and development and hailed the scientists and farmers. In this context, he assured that the government will take note of observations of   Appropriation Bills  for future strategy.

Referring to the second green revolution in Eastern India, the Finance Minister said that the government will consider a suggestion to set up a committee of Chief Ministers to promote agriculture in the Eastern States including Chhattisgarh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam. Talking about food security, Mr. Mukherjee said the country has produced about 250 million tones of foodgrains in 2011-12. He said the government has made adequate allocations for ensuring storage facilities.

On the budgetary proposals,  he has taken note of uncertainty prevailing in the country and outside while working out a domestic demand-driven strategy. He said investment in infrastructure, irrigation, rural infrastructure and education is leading towards strengthening the generation of the domestic demand fueling to attain the desired GDP growth.

The Finance minister said he will consider the demand for rollback of excise duty on non-branded jewellery. Later, the House returned the Appropriation Bills, which were passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The Defence Minister A.K. Antony has ordered a CBI probe into Army Chief's allegation that he was offered bribe. that the investigating agency is examining the reference to look into army chief's allegation.



In the Rajya, members from all sides strongly criticized Team Anna for reportedly using derogatory language against Parliamentarians. Some of them demanded action against those who denigrated the politicians in general.

Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj said she was distressed that Team Anna has launched a campaign against the parliamentarians elected by the people. JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav and Congress member, Sanjay Nirupam said Team Anna's attempts to target Parliament is an unfortunate. Members of Samajwadi party and CPIM also expressed their concern over the issue.

Placard-carrying members of TRS, TDP and Congress also trooped into the well in the Lok Sabha to demand creation of Telangana.