Naidu holds backstage talks with agitating leaders to end RS impasse

In a bid to break the Rajya Sabha impasse, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday spoke to floor leaders of various parties including the TDP, DMK and AIADMK apart from the Leaders of the House and Opposition and urged various parties to stop disrupting the House.

Naidu called the floor leaders of different parties to his chamber after the first adjournment in the day. The agitating members reportedly told the Chairman that they would speak with their leadership and get back.

Naidu also separately spoke to the Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and Leader of the House Arun Jaitley in his effort to end the stalemate in the Rajya Sabha.

The Rajya Sabha has not been able to transact any business for the last two weeks due to disruptions and repeated adjournments.

Earlier, as the House met for the day, Naidu urged the members to let the House function.

"If you are insisting on something you can have your say and at the end of the day we have to go either by consensus or by majority of the House. You can't dictate and say either you go my way or highway and that is no way.....I am sorry I can't allow this sort of thing. I once again make an appeal before taking an extreme view of the same.

"You can't decide issues physically or by bringing placards and shouting slogans, please understand. I hope at least next week onwards we have constructive debate in the House," he said.

The opposition has been demanding discussion on the frauds in the public sector banks, particularly the latest multi-thousand crore rupees Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam which involves diamontaire Nirav Modi and his relative Mehul Choksi, under the adjournment motion. However, Chairman Naidu is not admitting notices under adjournment rules.

Nirav Modi, who fled India just before the PNB scam came to light in January, was seen in a photograph with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in late January.

The TDP members have been agitating for special status to Andhra Pradesh and accusing the central government of going back on its promises. The TDP was a BJP ally till it severed ties with the NDA on Friday.

The AIADMK has been demanding the formation of Cauvery Water Management Board to resolve the issue of distribution of Cauvery water between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

--IANS

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