NEW DELHI: If a vigilant opposition is essential to a sprightly democracy, it was absent during the discussion on supplementary grants in the Lok Sabha on Friday afternoon.
From 2 pm to 3pm, there were barely a couple of MPs from the BJP and its allies in the House while the attendance on the treasury benches, although not exactly bursting at the seams, was much healthier.
BJP chief whip Ramesh Bais hung around for a while before leaving after a brief chat with minister of state in the PMO V Narayanasamy. Shiromani Akali Dal's Rattan Singh Ajnala was the sole NDA MP in the House for long.
Finance minister P Chidambaram faced rows of empty benches as MPs spoke on the demand raised by the government.
The job of playing opposition was left to Congress's Lal Singh, MP from Udhampur, who urged Chidambaram to visit villages in his remote constituency to see how money allocated for central schemes did not reach beneficiaries.
"You make schemes, but do you ask for an account of what happens to the money? There are schools were teachers are catering to classes two to five all at the same time. No roads anywhere... I am waiting for the day when I can travel by car," Lal Singh said.
Egged on by a receptive audience, Singh said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was a failure in his constituency.
NDA MPs give a miss to discussion on supplementary grants
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NDA MPs give a miss to discussion on supplementary grants
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NDA MPs give a miss to discussion on supplementary grants
