Defence panel chief raps senior MPs for skipping meeting

Chairman of parliamentary standing committee on defence Maj Gen BC Khanduri has asked two of its senior members -Congress’ Capt Amrinder Singh and BJP’s Vinod Khanna- to regularly attend its sessions.

Quoting Rule 260 of “Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha”, Khanduri noted that a motion can be moved in the House to discharge a member failing to attend two or three consecutive meetings of the committee without the chairman’s consent.

Except those appointed by the Speaker which the Speaker alone can remove, the panel chairman has the right to discharge every other member from the duties.

Lok Sabha attendance record reveals that former Punjab chief minister Amrinder Singh “signed” only on the first day of the Budget session on February 23 and was “Not Signed” (NS) on the rest of the days. NS could also mean that the MP did not turn up to participate in House proceedings.

Vinod Khanna, BJP MP from Gurdaspur, was shown in the register as ‘not signed’ for the first four days of the session, but has been present for the rest of the eight days.

The next meeting of the standing committee of defence is on March 30, which the chairman has called for “oral evidence of the representatives of the ministry of defence on – general budget and procurement policy.