Rajya Sabha allocated 10 hours each for discussion on 'Vande Mataram', electoral reforms next week

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Business Advisory Committee is learnt to have allocated 10 hours each for discussions on ‘Vande Mataram’, which will start next Tuesday, and on electoral reforms.

Sources said the BAC met in the evening during which it was decided to start the discussion on the 150th year of Vande Mataram, country’s national song, on Tuesday.

The discussion on electoral reforms will take place after the conclusion of the discussion on Vande Mataram in the Upper House. The debate on electoral reforms will start in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The first two days of the Winter Session of Parliament had witnessed intense protest by the Opposition demanding an immediate discussion on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

As the government insisted that a discussion on SIR cannot be held, the Opposition enlarged the scope of their debate to electoral reforms.

It also accepted a government proposal to have a discussion on Vande Mataram first, claiming that it did not want to fall into a "trap where it would be blamed" for disruption in Parliament.