Speaker Om Birla asks secretariat to track MP participation in Lok Sabha

Much to the consternation of Lok Sabha members, Speaker Om Birla (pictured) has asked the secretariat of the House to track the participation of each member in the business of the lower chamber of Parliament. The records will now be put up on the Lok Sabha website and regularly updated. Not just Birla, the Rajya Sabha secretariat, on instruction from Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, is mulling over a similar exercise. According to sources, Naidu wants to ensure not only better attendance of MPs in the House as well as in meetings of parliamentary committees, but also dignified conduct and order during discussions and debates, and give more opportunities to members who speak constructively. Recently, Naidu handpicked some better-performing MPs of various parties to include them in the Rajya Sabha’s panel of vice-chairpersons. They fill in when the chairman and deputy chairman are not present.

Sharing is caring?

The Madhya Pradesh government, run by the Congress, thinks the Central government is unfairly taking all the credit for a project. That’s why the state government has decided to lay tiles in the houses built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). The logic is clear: As the state government puts it, it is spending 40 per cent of the money under this scheme. It is not just the houses under construction but also the ones to be built will be beautified with tiles laid by the state government.

Chief vs deputy chief

The relationship is lukewarm between Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, who was seen as a favourite for the top post after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) stupendous win in the 2017 Assembly polls. The rather cold vibes shared by the two became apparent recently when Maurya wrote to Adityanath, alleging corruption in the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA). Since Adityanath holds charge of the UP housing and urban planning ministry too, he heads the state development authorities. Squaring it up, the chief minister has now upped the ante on the miserable condition of roads in the state. Maurya heads the state public works department, which is tasked with the upkeep of roads in UP.