Opposition blames government for Rajya Sabha impasse

The Upper House of Parliament was on Tuesday adjourned for the day without transacting any business for the 12th working day in a row.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, while speaking even as din prevailed in the House, blamed the government for the logjam.

"We want discussion on three issues. First of all, the banking fraud where billions of rupees have been siphoned off from the public sector banks. Then, there is special status to Andhra Pradesh and the Cauvery water management. We are interested in discussing all three subjects on the floor of the House," Azad said over the din.

However, as soon as Azad stood up to speak, members of AIADMK and TDP came near the Chairman's podium and started shouting slogans. So Azad had to shout over the din to be heard.

He said that a number of opposition parties had met in the morning and decided that the House should function and all the relevant issues, including government bills, should be discussed.

"We want the House to function. We want discussion on these issues, we want discussion on the bills. We want the government business to be transacted in addition to discussion on these issues. I request the government that it should engage itself with all these political parties," Azad said amid the noise.

"No effort has been made so far by the government to talk to these (opposition) political leaders to sort out the issue. So the government is responsible for the impasse because it has made no effort to solve this issue. The opposition is unitedly interested in functioning and running the proceedings of the House," he said.

Earlier, various political parties, including the Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Nationalist Congress Party and the Communist Party of India, met in Azad's chamber and discussed the continued logjam in the Upper House.

The opposition leaders, sources said, blamed the government for using a "friendly party" to disrupt the proceedings of the Upper House to avoid discussion on the multi-thousand-crore-rupee banking fraud.