Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Deputy Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, party MP KC Venugopal and others during the Congress Lok Sabha MPs meeting, at the Parliament House Annexe, in New Delhi on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday (February 13, 2025) met his party’s Lok Sabha colleagues and reviewed their performance in the first part of the Budget session.
Before the Parliament went into recess, Mr. Gandhi presided over a closed-door meeting of his colleagues, where he is said to have assessed their performance. He assessed the performance of the MPs on three parameters: attendance, participation of the members in Opposition protests and the impact of their speeches during the debates on the Union Budget and Motion of Thanks to the presidential address.
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Later, Mr. Gandhi, Lok Sabha member from Wayanad Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other Kerala MPs staged a demonstration within the Parliament complex over the issues of animal attacks in the State and protection of coastal areas from sand mining.
“Since December 27, 11 persons have been killed by wild animals in Wayanad. It is a very worrisome situation,” Ms. Vadra said, adding, “The Central government and the State government have to send funds to mitigate this problem because when I spoke with local people they are trying their best but they don’t have enough funds”.
The MPs carried placards that read ‘stop offshore sand mining’, ‘save lives’, ‘prevent wildlife attacks’ and ‘protect coastal and forest bordering communities’.
On Tuesday, the Congress and the Revolutionary Socialist Party raised in the Lok Sabha the issue of sand mining and urged the Centre to withdraw its decision to conduct offshore sand mining in Kerala, Gujarat and Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Congress leader Venugopal had said the livelihood of the fishermen community would be affected. “The government has to withdraw this order to save the environment and fishermen,” he had said.
Published – February 13, 2025 07:06 pm IST