New Delhi: Samajwadi Party, the Left and TDP will demonstrate in the Parliament House complex Friday to demand the resumption of the house and a debate on the coal allocation issue.
The parties Thursday demanded that a Supreme Court judge should investigate the coal block allocation that has rocked parliament and led the BJP to demand Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation.
“Parliament should function… there should be discussion,” Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav told reporters outside parliament.
The two houses were adjourned for the seventh day Thursday amid uproar over the controversy.
“We want a probe against the guilty by a sitting Supreme Court judge. We also want the guilty to be punished,” Yadav said, while addressing mediapersons along with CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta, CPI-M’s Basudeb Acharia and TDP’s Nama Nageswara Rao.
Demanding strong action against the guilty, Acharia accused both the Congress and the BJP for joining hands in stalling the parliament and said the “coal scam is bigger than the 2G (spectrum) scam”.
“We want a debate in the parliament. Both the Congress and BJP have both joined hands. They don’t want parliament to function. It is match fixing,” Acharia told reporters.
Manmohan Singh, he said, had to take the responsibility since he was in-charge of the coal portfolio for a major part between 2004 and 2009 when the irregularities took place.
“The way there has been wrong allotment, it should be probed and the guilty punished,” Acharia said.
The BJP has been stalling parliament following the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) into coal block allocations.
The prime minister had said in parliament Monday that the auditor’s report was “clearly disputable” and “flawed” because of its assumptions and computations.
Seeking an inquiry by a Supreme Court judge, Rao said “a through inquiry should also be done into how much loss the nation has incurred due to the allocation”.
“We also demand that the coal block allocation should be cancelled,” he said.
Mulayam Singh, who took the lead in voicing his concern over parliament failing to transact any business, had earlier held a meeting with parties who are opposed to the houses being disrupted repeatedly.
He said they would talk to leaders of other parties to seek their support to join them in their demand for resumption of work in parliament. (IANS)
