Opposition Raises NEET Paper Leak And Kanwar Yatra In All-Party Meet Ahead Of Budget Session | Updates

An all-party meeting was convened in the Parliament on Sunday ahead of the commencement of the Budget Session. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju convened a meeting of the floor leaders of political parties in Parliament to understand issues they would want to raise during the session.

Issues Raised In All-Party Meeting

In the meeting, Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Ram Gopal Yadav, raised the issue of the UP government’s order asking shopkeepers to display their names on the Kanwar route. “Not the correct thing to do,” said Yadav.

Quoting sources, an ANI report said that Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi raised the issues of NEET, and alleged misuse of central agencies like ED, CBI and Deputy Speaker post in the meeting.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to microblogging site X and wrote, “In today’s all-party meeting of floor leaders chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the JD(U) leader demanded special category status of Bihar. The YSRCP leader demanded special category status for Andhra Pradesh. Strangely, the TDP leader kept quiet on the matter.”

On the all-party meeting in Parliament, Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari said, “Traditionally, an all-party meeting is held so that we can raise issues related to the proceedings of the House. We want to discuss issues like inflation, unemployment, paper leaks, security issues related to China, removal of statues in Parliament, farmers, labourers, Manipur, and rail accidents. We will also make full efforts to discuss the issue of NEET.”

After the meeting, BJD MP Dr Sasmit Patra stated that the party demanded special category status for Odisha adding that the state has been deprived of the same for more than two decades.

“On behalf of Biju Janata Dal (BJD), we have placed several demands in the all-party meeting…Odisha has been deprived of the special category status for more than two decades…Political parties from Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have also demanded special category status for their respective states. BJD has demanded special category status for Odisha…The second issue is the non-revision of coal royalty for the state of Odisha…We raised the issue about the declining central transfer of funds and the need to work towards it…No action has been taken against the Governor of Odisha’s son who had beaten a Raj Bhawan staffer is extremely shocking. The rule of law is not being followed by the state of Odisha and its government,” Patra said.

Who All Attended All-Party Meeting?

Attendees of the meeting include Tiruchi Shiva, AIUML leader E.T. Mohammad Basheer, Jana Sena Party leader Bala Krishna, BJD leader Sasmit Patra, JDU leader Sanjay Jha, Union Ministers Ramdas Athawale, Praful Patel, Chirag Paswan, and AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi among others. Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal, and BJP President JP Nadda are also present.

However, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders are absent as they are observing Shahidi Divas (Martyrdom Day) in West Bengal. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav is also absent from the meeting since he is in Kolkata, attending the observance at the invitation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The Monsoon Session of the parliament will commence on Monday and will have 19 sittings till August 12.

Finance Minister Sitharman To Present Union Budget

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to present the Union Budget on the first day of the session. Sitharaman will also table the Economic Survey in Parliament on Monday.

The government is expected to present six bills, including the one to replace the 90-year-old Aircraft Act, and also get the Parliament nod for the budget of Jammu and Kashmir, which is under central rule.

INDI Alliance To Corner Government

Meanwhile, the united opposition is likely to corner the NDA government on issues ranging from the NEET paper leak case and railway safety.

Earlier this week, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had said that the opposition would also resist any government move to dilute its stake in public sector banks below 51 per cent.

Other Bill To To Be Tabled In Monsoon Session

• The government is likely to bring amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and other laws such as Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970, and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980 in the Budget Session due to which the government’s shareholding in PSBs can go down below 51 per cent.
• Besides the Finance Bill, the government has also listed The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill for introduction, consideration and passing.
• The proposed legislation aims to bring more clarity and convergence in the roles of different organisations working in the field of disaster management, a Lok Sabha bulletin issued Thursday said.
• The Bhartiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024 seeks to replace the Aircraft Act of 1934 to provide enabling provisions for ease of doing business in the civil aviation sector.
• The other bills listed for introduction and passage during the session are the Boilers Bill to replace the pre-Independence era law, the Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill and the Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill.

BJD To Demand Special Status For Odisha

Meanwhile, the former Odisha chief minister and BJP leader Naveen Patnaik has asked his party MPs to take up the demand for special category status for Odisha. The BJD has also declared that it would play the role of a strong opposition and aggressively raise issues of interest to the state in Parliament.

CPI MP Calls For Cancellation Of NEET UG 2024 Ahead Of The Meet

CPI MP P Sandosh Kumar called the all-party meeting a formality and said that nothing much of use will happen in the meeting. Hea also called for the cancellation of NEET UG 2024 exam.

Speaking to ANI Kumar said “This meeting is going to be held from 11 AM. It is not going to be of much use because this Parliament Session is going to start from tomorrow. It is a formality. Still, it is our responsibility to raise some issues for the public, we will definitely do that. The biggest issue is NEET, it needs to be cancelled.”