Both houses had a productive outing on Tuesday passing as many as three bills each. Notwithstanding the rather brief altercations that ensued in both houses, proceedings turned out be peaceful and particularly productive.
Proceedings reconvene on Wednesday, August 6 at 11 a.m.
Lok Sabha
Despite a heated exchange in the early hours on Tuesday, proceedings in the Lower House remained largely productive. The house of the people passed bills to statutorily penalise the use of unfair means in examinations for vacancies in govt jobs, and two bills enhancing scope of representation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Union Minister for Personnel, Personal Grievances and Pension Jitendra Singh moved the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024 in the afternoon hours. The bill introduces “specific substantive law” to deal with unfair means adopted in public examinations. It statements of objects puts forth, “It is imperative that elements that exploit vulnerabilities of examination system are identified and effectively dealt with by a comprehensive Central legislation”.
While members largely spoke in support of the proposed legislation, they also used the discussion as a premise urging the treasury to also address paper leaks and lapses in the examination system alongside observed plagiarism.
The other two bills passed in the lower house, namely, the Constitution (J&K) Scheduled Castes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the J&K Local Bodies Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 – strives to enhance the scope of reservation in the erstwhile state. While the former revises the list of scheduled tribes (in the state) to include the Pahari community, the latter aims to provide reservation to OBCs in the local bodies.
About the latter, J&K National Conference MP Hasnain Masoodi asked for specifics on how the quota for Gujjar-Bakarwals will be protected, to which Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda clarified their share of benefits will not be disturbed. For context, the bill is being introduced notwithstanding stiff opposition from existing Gujjar-Bakarwal scheduled tribe people of the erstwhile state. Further, the Bill also proposes to include the Gadda Brahman, Koli, Paddari communities to the ST list. The other bill sought to include the Valmiki community in the Scheduled Castes List of J&K.
Both were passed with unanimous agreement.
Members also expressed their unanimous support for the bill provisioning representation in local bodies of the union territory. However, members also aired their concerns on the Union Govt unable to conduct assembly elections in the erstwhile state – also questioning the intent to ensuring federalism. Leader of Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, referring to the abrogation of Article 370 and the treasury’s positive assertion, accused the government of “fiddling with the demographic composition of Jammu and Kashmir” in order to “score political brownie points”. Members also sought the treasury to contemplate on the ongoing protests “in sub-zero temperatures” in Leh and Ladakh seeking statehood.
While the day concluded rather peacefully and having attained much productivity, a brief ruckus had ensued following DMK MP T.R. Baalu’s remark at Minister of State L Murugan. This happened during the Question Hour when several members from Tamil Nadu had raised concerns about the allotment to the state to cope with Cyclone Michaung. Speaker Om Birla diffused the situation stating the remarks would be expunged.
Rajya Sabha
The Upper House too passed the same number of bills as Lok Sabha, two concerning inclusions of leftout communities into the scheduled tribes and caste list and the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Bill, 2024.
The former strives to enhance the ambit of representation for scheduled castes and tribes in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Notwithstanding the unanimous agreement, members from the opposition accused the government of using the tribal community for mere votes. A heated exchange ensued between Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and BJD MP Sasmit Patra when the former accused the Odisha govt of usurping tribal lands. The charge was vehemently denied by Dr Patra, instead accusing the Centre of interference in state.
Both bills were passed via voice vote.
After a comparatively shorter debate later in the day, the Upper House also passed the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Bill, 2024. It decriminalises minor offences committed by violating water pollution norms and centralizes the penalisation by appointing an adjudicating officer who decides the penalty
Members from the Opposition benches accused the treasury of diluting the water pollution norms by decriminalising offences. The House then continued to debate on Motion of Thanks to President’s address. Union Minister Bhupender Yadav assured the bill does not completely decriminalise any serious offence which violates the water pollution norms. He added the endeavour was to only cut down on the bureaucratic delays faced by industries in seeking environmental clearance.
Later, in a rare appearance, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda described the drinking water situation in Karnataka to be a “major problem”. He appealed to members from Tamil Nadu to get permission from the Union government to construct a new dam.
Unrelatedly, striking a political overtone, Mr Gowda said that he was not going to praise the Prime Minister unless “satisfied that there are several programmes that everyone should appreciate”.
The house concluded the day with a pending discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address.
(Compiled by Sumeda, Saumya Kalia, Sruthi Darbhamulla, Saptaparno Ghosh, Suchitra Karthikeyan, and Priyali Prakash)
