Government to make a statement on Baalu issue tomorrow: Narayansamy

New Delhi, Apr 29 (UNI) The Government will give its response on the allegations against Shipping Minister T R Baalu of misusing office to favour his family in gas allocation in the Rajya Sabha tomorrow.

In a brief intervention during the debate on the working of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayansamy said, ''In response to the demand by Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh for a statement from the government on an issue concerning Mr Baalu, the Petroleum Minister will make a statement in this august House tomorrow.'' Earlier in the day, Mr Narayansamy, responding to a query by the Opposition as to when the Government would give its response to the issue, said the government would announce today itself when it would come out with a response.

Leader of the Opposition (Jaswant Singh) had raised the issue yesterday and demanded a statement from the government. The government had said it would come out with a ''response shortly.'' The issue came up again after the Question Hour today with Ms Sushma Swaraj of the BJP demanding to know when the government would come out with a response as promised yesterday.

Dr Murli Manohar Joshi (BJP) wanted to know if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would give a statement on the issue.

Ms Swaraj said the response should be given today only because tomorrow the Finance Bill would be discussed in the House and later, the House would not function till May 4 because of holidays.

That would mean the issue would be discussed only on May 5 and that would be very late, she said and added that the government should respond today.

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