-The Hindustan Times Under fire from the opposition for the indefinite postponement of the lokpal bill, the government on Wednesday assured the Rajya Sabha that it will be taken up before March 30 during the ongoing budget session. In his reply to the notice given by the leader of the opposition Arun Jaitley, seeking immediate resumption of the debate on the bill, parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said it will be...

-The Economic Times The Opposition, acting in sync with the Trinamool Congress, a component of the ruling UPA at the Centre, on Wednesday scored a victory in the Rajya Sabha when it got the government to commit itself to the passage of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill in the House in the "first half of the budget session itself.'' "We want to bring the bill within this part of the session,'' parliamentary...

-The Economic Times The government may be forced to trim its legislative agenda - including pushing through long-pending bills on pensions, insurance and banking - following Congress' debacle in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab assembly elections.  Pension, insurance and banking sector reforms are part of the legislative agenda of the UPA government but BJP leaders told finance minister Pranab Mukherjee at an outreach session that the government should first set its House in...

-The Times of India The BJP is all set to corner the government over the lokpal bill in Rajya Sabha with Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley to seek suspension of question hour to discuss the anti-graft legislation.  According to Times Now, Arun Jaitley will raise the issue in the Upper House under Rule 257, which will allow the opposition to question the fiasco in the last session.  The government had on Monday said...

Parliament must use budget session to discuss key pending bills The budget session of Parliament begins today. The last few sessions have been characterised by disruptions and consequent loss of productive time. To see one indicator, the 15th Lok Sabha, half-way through its term, has lost 30 per cent of scheduled time — the worst ever. As a result, many important bills have been pending. It is to be seen whether...