Ethics Committees to go into Ramesh's complaint

Ethics Committees of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will now go into Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh's complaint about MPs lobbying for projects in which they have vested interests.

Ethics Committees of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will now go into environment minister Jairam Ramesh's complaint about MPs lobbying for projects in which they have vested interests.

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Speaker Meira Kumar has now referred the matter to the Committee while Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari had did so last month itself.

Ramesh had last month written to the Presiding Officers of both the Houses of Parliament in this regard.

The Minister had complained to them about alleged violation of norms by MPs approaching him with matters of companies they are running or associated with and raising issues related to projects that do not fall in their constituencies.

He had also urged them to dissuade MPs from meeting officials directly, saying such meetings were often used to put pressure on the ministry.

"This is a blatant violation of norms. I have tried to discourage this but have not entirely succeeded," Ramesh had contended.

Ramesh also said he also found objectionable MPs approaching him and pleading for or against projects that are neither in their state nor in their constituency.