Rajya Sabha returns appropriation bill to Lok Sabha

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Thursday returned to Lok Sabha the appropriation bill after members decided to submit their speeches to the House, skipping a debate on account of paucity of time.

“With a heavy heart, I lay my speech (on the table of the house). The budget should be discussed threadbare, it is government’s failure that is creating this situation… We are setting a bad precedent here,” Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu, who had initiated the debate on the general budget in the upper house, said.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, however, assured the house that he would go through all speeches submitted by the members and prepare a reply and circulate it.

The appropriation bill enables the government to draw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India to meet its expenditure till the finance bill is passed.

IANS