Deadlock in Indain parliament over price rise ends

New Delhi, Aug 2 (PTI) The week-long impasse in Indian
Parliament over price rise ended Monday with the opposition
giving up its demand for voting and agreeing to pass a
resolution after discussion expressing concern over the issue
in both Houses.
As per the consensus reached at an all-party breakfast
meeting convened by Leader of the House in Lok Sabha Pranab
Mukherjee, the Lower House will discuss the issue on Tuesday.
This will be followed by Speaker Meira Kumar reading out a
resolution expressing "sense of the House" on the price rise
issue.
A similar procedure will be followed in the Upper House
Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with Chairman Hamid Ansari moving the
resolution after discussions.
There were reservations from the opposition on the
wording of the resolution which was initiated by the
government.
"They were not using the word 'common man', so we
objected. Now the words 'adverse impact of inflationary
pressure on the common man' have been included in the
resolution," Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj
told PTI.
However, the government did not concede the opposition
demand of including "price rise" in the resolution, arguing
that the issue was a continuing phenomenon which could not be
stopped and instead the term "inflationary pressure" should be
used.
With the opposition and the government agreeing on the
discussions, both the Houses of Parliament were expected to
function normally. The two Houses had remained paralysed since
the session began last Monday with the Opposition clashing
with the treasury benches on the issue.
"This is a recognition of the protests launched by the
opposition parties," Communist Party of India leader Gurudas
Dasgupta said.

Those who attended the meeting included Leader of
Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her counterpart in
Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, Janta Dal (United) President and
National Democratic Alliance convenor Sharad Yadav, Samajwadi
Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Ramgopal Yadav, Bahujan
Samaj Party leader SC Mishra, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam leader M Thambidurai, CPI-Marxist's Sitaram Yechury
and Basudev Achariya and CPI's Gurdas Dasgupta.
From the United Progressive Alliance side, Home
Minister P Chidambaram, Nationalist Congress Party chief
Sharad Pawar, Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam leader TR Balu,
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, his deputy
Prithviraj Chavan and V Narayansamy attended the meeting.
During the hour-long meeting, the opposition pressed
hard for changing the wordings of the resolution.
"Now there is a resolution with consensus. Pranab
Mukherjee read out the resolution. Opposition had certain
disagreements. Government accepted those demands," SP chief
Mulayam Singh Yadav said after the meeting. PTI RC
KAB