NEW DELHI: The first day of the Lok Sabha’s monsoon session saw the Opposition using Zero Hour to raise a host of issues, including students’ suicide amid the NEET exams, LAC tension and non-payment of GST compensation to states. On the treasury side, the government introduced a number of legislations and got approval for a couple of them.
Speaker Om Birla rejected adjournment motions moved by Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and party MP K Suresh, who sought urgent discussions on the Chinese incursions in east Ladakh. While Chowdhury attempted to raise it, Birla said he could speak when the House takes up discussions on the matter.
In his brief remarks, Chowdhury saw in the incursions China’s conspiracy to occupy 1,100 km of Indian land from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh. He sought a clear reply from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule drew attention of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to the wobbling economy and unemployment situation. “The biggest challenge right now in the country is the state of the economy and unemployment,” she said.
Leader of the DMK in the House T R Baalu raised the issue of 12 students from rural backgrounds who had allegedly committed suicide due to the NEET exams for admission to undergraduate medical courses. “Within a month of the school exams, they had to appear for NEET. They were all bright students,” said Baalu.
The Lok Sabha passed two bills — The National Commission for Homeopathy Bill, 2020 and The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, 2020 — after brief discussions. The Opposition charged that the government was rushing with legislations without addressing concerns of stakeholders. Union health minister Harsh Vardhan rebutted it, saying the recommendations of parliamentary standing committee on the legislations have been incorporated.
The BJP and the Trinamool Congress members renewed their rivalries after veteran member Saugata Roy commented on the finance minister and Union minister Prahlad Joshi demanded an apology. The remark was later expunged.
The bills introduced in the Lok Sabha include a proposal to bring cooperative banks under the supervision of the RBI, with Sitharaman giving details of the extent of the NPAs.
MSP mechanism to stay, says govt
Amid Opposition protest over introduction of agrarian legislations, the Centre on Monday said the Minimum Support Price mechanism will stay irrespective of recommen-dations of experts. The government introduced three legislations pertaining to the farm sector
Positive or negative?
The integrity of the RT-PCR tests was put under the microscope as Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) convenor and Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal tested positive in Delhi but negative in Jaipur. “I got myself tested for COVID-19 on the Lok Sabha premises. It was positive. Afterwards, I got the corona test done in Jaipur’s SMS hospital, which showed the result as negative. Which is accurate?” he wondered on Twitter