STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel chaired by Congress leader Anand Sharma will be on a five-day visit to the Union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir starting August 17 to examine the administration and development of the region and review the working conditions of central police forces, sources said on Tuesday.
The visit by the MPs comes nearly two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met top leaders of Jammu and Kashmir on June 24. It was the first high-level interaction between the Centre and political leaders from J-K after August 5, 2019, when the Centre revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two union territories.
LS witnesses continuous ruckus
New Delhi: Lok Sabha continued to witness protests by the Opposition over the Pegasus snooping controversy and farmers’ issues on Tuesday and had to be adjourned for the day after the House passed two key bills.
The Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2021 and the Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021 were passed separately by voice vote in the midst of continuous protests by opposition members.
Amid the protests during the Question Hour, Speaker Om Birla said that important issues related to farmers were being discussed and urged the protesting members in the Well to go back to their seats.
He also said the protesting members do not seem to want discussions and were insulting Parliamentary traditions.
More than five questions and supplementaries, mostly related to agriculture and horticulture, were taken up before the proceedings were first adjourned till noon. The Question Hour went on for nearly 40 minutes.
Opposition members continued their protests. Many of them trooped into the Well of the House shouting slogans and displaying placards.
Parliament proceedings have been disrupted due to Opposition protests since the start of the Monsoon Session on July 19.
Tuesday was the eleventh consecutive working day when the lower house witnessed repeated disruptions.
When the House re-assembled at noon, the opposition protests continued.
Senior MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, who was in the Chair, first allowed the papers related to various ministries to be laid in the House. He also announced that the adjournment motion moved by a few members were rejected by the Speaker.
As the protests continued, Mahtab appealed to the opposition members to go to their seats so that the House can function normally.
As the opposition ignored his plea, Mahtab adjourned the House till 2 pm after 10 minutes of business.
As the House reconvened at 2 PM, Speaker Birla asked the protesting members to go back to their seats and said that he would give them a chance to speak.
However, the opposition continued their protests.
Amid the din, the Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021 was passed.
The proceedings were then adjourned till 4 PM.
When the House reconvened, the Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2021 was passed.
Moving the bill for consideration and passage, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government was ready to respond to any queries raised by members on bills laid in the House. Critical of the Opposition, Sitharaman said that the “constitutional impasse” in Parliament was “not correct”.
She also said it was unfortunate that nothing is being done to stop the din in the House. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and RSP MP N K Premchandran said that bills should not be passed when the House is not in order and there should be a proper debate before the passage of any bill.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs will visit Leh, Srinagar and Jammu from August 17-21, according to the communication shared by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat with the committee members. The agenda of the visit will be to examine the subject ‘Administration, Development and People’s Welfare in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh’.
“The Committee will also review the working conditions of three Central Armed Police Forces namely Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF),” the communication reads. The majority of the members of the committee are from the ruling BJP.
As many as 14 leaders including Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad, National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah; PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti and J-K Apni Party’s Altaf Bukhari attended the meeting with Prime Minister Modi. Most of the leaders in the meeting had raised the issue of restoration of statehood.