Pegasus row: 'Rs 133 crores lost due to House disruptions'; Cong says govt ploy to curtail monsoon session

NEW DELHI: With the

Pegasus

row threatening to derail the monsoon session of

Parliament

, government sources said, more than Rs 133 crore of taxpayers' money has been lost due to ongoing opposition protest.

However, the Congress alleged that the government was trying to find excuse to curtail the monsoon session of Parliament.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi blamed the government for the current deadlock in Parliament and alleged it was trying to avoid answering pertinent questions raised by the opposition.

"My straight charge is that the government has stopped the session and the government is now possibly thinking of curtailing a stopped session. So, you can draw your own conclusion," he told reporters.

Singhvi alleged that the government made sure that parliament does not function for nine or 10 days is now finding "the first fault as an excuse to do the second fault, namely curtail it".

While

Rajya Sabha

has functioned for nearly 21 percent of its scheduled time, Lok

Sabha

has managed to function for less than 13 percent of the scheduled time.

"Lok Sabha has only been allowed to function for about seven hours out of possible 54 hours.

"Rajya Sabha has been allowed to function for 11 hours out of possible 53 hours. So far Parliament has functioned only 18 hours out of possible 107 hours (16.8 percent)," news agency PTI reported quoting sources.

The disruptions have led to a loss of more than Rs 133 crore to the exchequer, they said.

Ever since the Monsoon Session began on July 19, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been seen repeated disruptions and have failed to transact any business after opposition uproar in favour of their demand for a discussion on the Pegasus snooping row.

The opposition has insisted that it will not call off its protests inside Parliament without the government allowing a full-fledged debate on the alleged snooping using Pegasus software.

Meanwhile, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said that the controversy was a "non-issue" and that the government was ready for discussions on people-related issues.

The session is scheduled to conclude on August 13.

(With PTI inputs)