Government does not want to discuss Budget: TMC

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien on Friday alleged that the Rajya Sabha was being disrupted by the members of the ruling party as the government did not want a discussion on the Union Budget.

"The government does not have answers to questions being asked by the Opposition. So, the Rajya Sabha is being deliberately disrupted," O'Brien said at a press conference, a day after Congress leader P. Chidambaram's speech in the Budget debate in the Upper House took place amid sloganeering by the treasury bench members.

On Wednesday, Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily's speech in the Lok Sabha also took place amid a ruckus created by the treasury bench members.

In both Houses, the ruling party members protested against the ruckus created by the Congress members during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reply to a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Speech in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

O'Brien also accused the government of "murdering" institutions like Parliament, and questioned the rationale to merge the General Budget and the Railway Budget.

"There used to be around 12 hours of discussion on the General Budget and 12 hours of discussion on the Railway Budget. That has been washed out due to the merger of the Budgets," he said.

Raising several questions on the railway allocations, O'Brien said states that had opposition parties in power were given lesser funds.

"BJP has been saying that previous Railway Ministers politicised the Railway Budget... at least at that time it was discussed in the House," he said alleging that states like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Gujarat where the BJP is in power got more allocations compared to states like West Bengal and Delhi.

He also said that while employment generation remained a major issue, around 1,75,000 jobs were there in railway safety, which were not being filled.

--IANS

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