New Delhi, Aug 23: With Parliament being stalled by the opposition on the coal block allocation issue for the third day, government today said it did not visualise the deadlock ending before next week.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said talks to end the stalemate were not possible before Monday. He said a week is likely to be lost due to disruption as “I am told that tomorrow also the Houses will not function.”
“Do you think the answer to break the deadlock is to demand the resignation (of the Prime Minister)? They are not moving forward. Today we had invited them for talks. But they are probably not willing to talk. Perhaps they will be ready to talk on Monday,” he told reporters outside Parliament House.
He was asked about the efforts to break the deadlock.
Bansal said several bills were stuck due to adjournments. “The Whistleblowers' Bill is pending in Rajya Sabha while the Chemical Weapons Convention Bill is stuck on Lok Sabha. There are some important bills of HRD Ministry which we want to bring.”
Leader of the Lok Sabha and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said he will “certainly speak” with Leader of the Opposition to end the deadlock.
“So far their stand is that they want to stall the House. But the government is prepared to discuss at length...unless the House starts, how can you discuss,” he said.
Shinde pointed that even the Prime Minister has publicly said that he was prepared to discuss the CAG report on coal block allocation on the floor of the House.
Speaker Meira Kumar said she wanted to hold an all-party meeting to end the stalemate but the Opposition had “difficulty” attending it and they requested her to hold the talks later.
“I am trying to run the House but there seems to be a stalemate. Let's see when we can get over it,” she said.
