Parliament Monsoon Session commences Wednesday; NDA meets on Tuesday

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will meet here on Tuesday to chalk out its strategy during the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning tomorrow.

The BJP-led opposition is all set to corner the ruling UPA Government on a number of issues, including the Assam violence, power grids failure and the coal scam.

Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said that they would take up issues like the recent Bodo-Muslim ethnic clashes that recently took place in Assam.

"We said that in the first day itself we would like to take up the issue of the ethnic clashes in Kokrajhar. This clash has taken place in the context of the illegal immigration in the country. We will decide with the NDA as to which lawmaker will take up this issue. The NDA meeting is tomorrow, and we will take up this issue on the first day itself," Swaraj told mediapersons after the all-party meet called by Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar.

"Apart from this, some states are being affected by floods while others are suffering due to drought. We would like to discuss the plight of such states as well," she added.

Swaraj further said that they would also take up other issues like the recent power grid failure that affected the daily lives of millions of Indians.

"For 48 hours, 640 million people of the country were plunged into darkness, three power grids tipped together, we would also like to take up this issue as well. And during the Amarnath pilgrimage, many pilgrims died, that too because of the lack of adequate facilities. We would also like to take up this topic," she said.

The recent deaths of pilgrims during the Amarnath pilgrimage in Jammu and Kashmir have also raised eyebrows regarding the basic facilities provided during the pilgrimage.

Moreover, UPA ally Trinamool Congress (TMC) is to raise concern over the economic disparity in West Bengal.

TMC lawmaker Sudip Bandopadhyay yesterday said West Bengal is the worst sufferer of the regional imbalances of Indian economy.

"So, we certainly want to raise our voice that these regional imbalances have to be corrected," he said.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar who convened a meeting yesterday said that she hoped to provide necessary time to accommodate discussions on all the subjects. .

"Because of the Presidential and the Vice Presidential elections, this time we are starting the session from August 8 which continues till September 7. For 20 days, we will have the sitting of the House for 120 hours," said Kumar.

"Apart from the government business, the question hour, zero hour, we are also going to take up various issues facing the nation and also international issues," she added.