NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha on Thursday cleared the Appropriation Bill, 2026, which authorises withdrawal of funds from the Consolidated Fund of India to cover excess expenditure of around Rs 54,067 crore incurred on certain services during the financial year that ended on March 31, 2023. The bill was returned to Lok Sabha after the members’ approval through a voice vote – completing the parliamentary process for a Money Bill.During the day, RS saw multiple adjournments, as the opposition members demanded home minister Amit Shah‘s presence in the House, leading to RS chairperson C P Radhakrishnan asking parliamentary affairs minister, Kiren Rijiju to convey their sentiments to Shah.In the morning session, the upper House saw two adjournments amid the opposition members also demanding that the chairperson allow the leader of the opposition, Mallikarjun Kharge, to speak. Amid repeated appeals of the chair to the opposition MPs to go back to their seats before he could call LoP, Rijiju raised a point of order. Citing rules, he said Kharge has been saying the same thing every day, and that is a rule against repetition.When the House reconvened at noon, protests continued. Heeding the opposition’s request, the chairperson asked Kharge to speak. But the treasury benches objected to this. Amid protests from both sides, Kharge said, “If I don’t read the rules, if I don’t read my matter, should I read what you (Rijiju) give? It’s my right, what to speak, when to speak, how to speak.”Kharge said they have been asking PM and Shah to come to the House. “We request the chair to direct the home minister to come and give a statement…,” he said. Rijiju objected that Kharge cannot dictate which minister should come on which date. Responding to this, Radhakrishnan said, “No, he (Kharge) is not dictating. He has put his request… As parliamentary affairs minister, you have to reflect the sentiments to HM.
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..”In a press conference, Kharge said they had been demanding Shah’s statement on police “excess” against students for the past 15 days and that the PM should apologise to students, but both have been absent from Parliament. “We requested the RS chair that we want the PM’s apology and the HM’s statement,” he said.
