Congress prepares list of issues for Parliament’s Budget Session beginning tomorrow

New Delhi, Jan 27 (IANS) The Congress party has resolved to raise a host of issues, including reframing the VB-G RAM G Law, ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Aravalli deforestation and mining, and India’s foreign policy in the first half of the two-part Budget Session of Parliament beginning from Wednesday. 

The Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) met this afternoon at its Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s residence, which was attended by party President and Rajya Sabha leader Mallikarjun Kharge, along with Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. 

Despite the government making it clear earlier at an all-party meeting on Tuesday that it will not roll back the recently introduced VB–G RAM G Law, and that MPs have already discussed the SIR exercise, Congress Rajya Sabha member Syed Naseer Hussain demanded a “total rollback”. 

Asserting that the primary focus of the session would be the Budget itself, the government added that MPs could raise other issues when discussing the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address. 

However, briefing the media on the CPP meeting, Hussain termed the government “arrogant”, insisting it should undertake electoral reforms based on Congress’s suggestions. 

“Members from various states present in the meeting provided on-ground report on how excesses of SIR are creating havoc, creating confusion, and snatching away voters’ rights,” claimed the Rajya Sabha member. 

“We need to raise it forcefully because vote theft is a major issue,” he added later, calling all post-2003 polls a hoax. 

The Congress leader added that it was further decided to raise environmental issues, like the Aravalli Hills, currently at the centre of a major legal and environmental battle, where the Supreme Court is hearing the case.

Alongside, the party intends to raise the Great Nicobar Project aimed at transforming the islands into a strategic logistics, trade, and defence hub, while balancing environmental and tribal welfare concerns. 

He also stated that his party intended to raise the statehood issue pertaining to Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. 

The Congress has been actively advocating for the restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir and the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. 

Incidentally, Hussain is the Congress General Secretary in charge of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. It also plans to include issues about urban governance in the context of recent deaths reported due to water contamination in Indore and a series of accidents on the Indore-Ahmedabad National Highway, resulting in 18 fatalities. 

Moreover, the party is not satisfied with the Centre’s foreign policy, with Hussain claiming that it was facing tariff threats from the US due to this. 

“Foreign policy is affecting the economy,” he claimed, saying that the falling value of the Rupee was leading to a disruption in the economy and hurting business, especially the MSME sector. 

When asked about Parliamentarians from the Opposition INDIA Bloc, he chose to mention parties by directly referring to the grouping. All floor leaders of the Opposition parties in Parliament, he said, will meet in Kharge’s Parliament office to discuss the issues and possible coordination and management. 

--IANS

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