SHRI CHANDRA SHEKHAR (Ballia, U.P.) :

Mr. Speaker, with your permission, I would like to raise an issue with heavy heart. Shri Prakash Singh Badal and his son are languishing in prison in Punjab and every day the news of their maltreatment in jail are reported. One hon. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs herself had visited them and she is an eyewitness to it. A new tendency to settle personal scores with a view to take revenge in politics is increasing in our country and there is a need to curb this tendency. Badal is not the person who could have fled from the country. I don’t know whether he is in possession of four thousand crore or twenty thousand crore rupees but I don’t find the charges levelled against him reportedly in newspapers are credible. I feel that we are turning less and less sensitive to other’s sufferings. Yesterday some Members were talking about the need to release Shri Vaiko or at least to allow him to attend the proceedings of the House. I had heard that the Government propose to repeal POTA. Still more than a year has passed since Vaiko has been in jail. These things don’t evoke any response from us. An engineer was killed in Bihar recently. These issues was not discussed in the House. If our political colleagues and veteran politicians keep on behaving like this, the parliamentary convention cannot be carried on. I shall be grateful if you intervene in this matter

SHRI CHANDRA SHEKHAR :

Mr. Speaker, Sir, the hon. Minister is expected to know the allocation made to his Department. The question is very simple. If a certain amount was allocated, whether it was reduced or not? He should give an answer in ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. Why should he go on saying what was the demand from the States, States have been demanding and he has been doing it? The only thing is that he should know about the allocation of his Department. If certain allocation was made in the Budget, whether it has been reduced or not. The young Parliamentarian has asked this question. The hon. Minister should say whether it has been reduced or not and if this has been reduced, how much has been reduced.

SHRI CHANDRA SHEKHAR :

Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is not only at the end of the budgetary period. He must know whether this allocation has been reduced or not. He should say that he has got no communication for reducing the allocation; whether the Finance Ministry has given any notice to him or not that his budget allocation has been reduced. The question is like this. This is a very simple question. He should say that he has no information whether the allocation has been reduced or not.