News Analysis India

Tag: Rajya Sabha

  • No data on internet shutdowns, religious attacks, Centre tells Parliament

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  There is no centralised data on internet shutdowns in the country and the government also does not maintain national data on attacks on religious institutions, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. 

    The ministry also provided details about the methodology to control fake news and misinformation during tensions and riots adding, that internet bans help in stopping rumours.

    “Information in cyber-space flows fast and has potential of misuse. During tensions and riots, suspension of telecom services/internet shutdown is done by the appropriate authorities in the States/UTs concerned in the interest of maintaining public safety and averting public emergency,” minister of state for home Nityanand Rai told the House. 

    In response to a question seeking details of violence against Christians in the last five years, Rai said, “Specific data regarding attacks against against individual communities or on their religious institutions is not maintained centrally.”

    To a  question on whether there has been a sudden rise in attacks on Hindu temples, Rai said public order and police being state subjects, “prevention, detection, registration, investigation and prosecution of offences” are the concerns of state/UT  governments.

    The MHA further said the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) was not used callously against minorities and backward classes. However, statistics shared by it  showed a steady rise in invocation of UAPA and sedition laws since 2017. As many as 5,128 cases under UAPA and 229 on charges of sedition have been lodged across India in a five-year period from 2015. 

    In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said the challenges posed by cyberspace are many, which flow from its vastness and borderless character and that information in cyberspace flows fast and has the potential of being misused.

    “During tensions and riots, suspension of telecom services and internet shutdown is done by the appropriate authorities in the states and UTs concerned in the interest of maintaining public safety and averting public emergency, as per procedures defined in the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Amendment) Rules, 2020,” he said.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • 755 FIRs, 1,829 arrests, 353 cases chargesheeted in Delhi violence: MHA in Rajya Sabha

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: While giving an update on investigations to identify the perpetrators of communal violence in Delhi in February 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday said that 755 FIRs, 1829 arrests and 353 cases were chargesheeted in Delhi violence cases.

    Quoting information given by Delhi police, Ministry of Home Affairs in Rajya Sabha said, “Delhi Police has informed that in connection with the riots of North-east District of Delhi, total 755 FIRs have been registered, out of which 62 heinous cases are investigated by Special Investigation Teams (SITs) in Crime Branch, one case is investigated by Special Cell to unearth the criminal conspiracy behind the riots and the remaining 692 cases are investigated by North-East District.”

    “1829 persons have been arrested and charge sheets in 353 cases have been submitted in the Ld. Court for trial. The investigation is carried out, in all cases, based on facts and evidence, using the latest scientific techniques, without regard to the affiliation/identity of the alleged individuals,” MHA said while also replying to a question about intends to investigate some political leaders for communally provocative speeches in the city. 

  • Centralised data of internet shutdown not maintained by ministry: MHA on internet ban during tensions

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday replied in Rajya Sabha about the methodology of the Centre to control fake news and misinformation during tensions and riots and internet shutdowns are a prescribed method.

    According to the reply, Union Home Ministry has said they don’t maintain centralised data of internet ban. “Challenges of the cyber space are many, which flow from its vastness and borderless characters. Information in cyber-space flows fast and has potential of misuse. During tensions and riots, suspension of telecom services/internet shutdown is done by the appropriate authorities in the States / UTs concerned in the interest of maintaining public safety and averting public emergency, as per procedures defined in the ‘Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Amendment) Rules, 2020’,” the MHA said.

    “Centralised data of internet shutdown is not maintained by the Ministry of Home affairs. Orders issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) are available at MHA website,” MHA replied to a question asked by a Member of Parliament.

  • 81.59 lakh healthcare workers, 1.01 crore frontline workers registered on Co-WIN till March 2: Data

    As of March 2, a total of nine states and Union Territories have administered the 1st dose of anti-coronavirus vaccine to more than 90 per cent of the registered healthcare workers.

  • Parliament adjourned for the day amid Opposition uproar over fuel price hike

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: The Parliament was adjourned till March 10 following repeated uproar by the Opposition in both Houses over rising fuel prices.

    Both the Houses were adjourned and will meet tomorrow at 11 AM.

    Earlier today, both Houses of Parliament were adjourned till 2 pm on Tuesday following continued ruckus by the Opposition over the rise of fuel prices.

    Parliament faced repeated adjournments following constant disturbance by the Opposition over the rising fuel prices in the country.

    Earlier the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh said, “During the remaining part of the Budget Session, members will be seated in Rajya Sabha chambers and its gallery, with some physical distancing. 142 seats have been made available in Rajya Sabha chamber and remaining members to sit in the gallery.”

    The decision to revise the timing of both Houses was announced on Monday. Both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha were operating under curtailed hours of timing and social distancing norms amid COVID-19 induced norms.

    The second part of the Budget Session of Parliament commenced from Monday with all COVID-19 precautionary measures in place.  

  • Attend Parliament, observe debates: Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu to MPs

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said that members should make it a point to be present in the House to enhance understanding of parliamentary procedures and also use the library facility.

    On the first day of the second part of the Budget Session, Naidu said that he has been told that some members do not attend the proceedings even when they are in the national capital.

    “Going to library is going to enhance your knowledge. Attending the session, not missing it, also enhances understanding of Parliament procedures. So I call upon members to please visit (Parliament) library, make use of the library and also please attend Parliament,” he said.

    He further said, “I am told they are in Delhi but they are not present in the House”.

    He, however, made it clear that he was not referring to any particular member or any party.

    “I appeal to all the members, please make it a point to be in the House and then observe debates, enrich your knowledge,” he said.

    The Parliament Library is completing 100 years this year.

    It has a huge collection of about 14 lakh books including hundreds of journals in all languages.

    “I am told that the footfall of Members of Parliament in this source of information and knowledge is not very encouraging,” Naidu said, stressing that sufficient homework is required on the part of members to make quality contribution to debates and interventions.

    Naidu also gave an account of the examination of the Demands for Grants for 2021-22 of various ministries undertaken by the eight Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees of Rajya Sabha during the 3 week-recess after the first part of the ongoing Budget session of Parliament.

    He referred to several positives that emerged during the Budget scrutiny by the Committees of Rajya Sabha and some concerns as well.

    Naidu, however, expressed concern over low attendance of members of non-BJP and non-Congress parties in the meetings held for scrutiny of Demands for Grants.

    Naidu said attendance of such other parties and groups has fallen to 27.60 per cent from 40 per cent last year.

    Consequently, the overall attendance this year in the 21 meetings has fallen to 42 per cent from 48 per cent last year.

    The chairman also noted that the new Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge is one of the long serving leaders of our country with vast legislative and administrative experience having been member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for a record 9 times without a break and twice member of the Lok Sabha.

    Kharge was also the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly twice besides being the leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha.

    Earlier, three newly elected BJP members Biswajit Daimary, Dineshchandra Jemalbhai and Rambhai Haribhai Mokariya took oath or affirmation of allegiance to the Constitution The House also made obituary reference to Vidya Sagar Nishad, M.Rama Jois, and Satish Sharma, all former members of the House, who passed away recently.

  • Rajya Sabha adjourned till 1 pm amid Opposition uproar over fuel prices

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned again till 1 pm on Monday amid uproar by Opposition members seeking a discussion on the issue of frequent increase in fuel prices.

    Minutes after the House met at 11 am after the first adjournment, Congress members again demanded the discussion on rising fuel prices in the country.

    Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge sought a discussion on the matter.

    He said it was important to discuss the matter as people were suffering due to the frequent increase in fuel prices.

    Kharge said the legislative business could be taken up later.

    However, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh did not allow the discussion as he noted that the decision of the Chairman cannot be reopened.

    Earlier Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had not allowed the discussion, saying the issue can be debated later.

    As the Chair decided to continue with the legislative business, Opposition members started shouting slogans forcing the Deputy Chairman to adjourn the House till 1 pm.

    The second part of the Budget session of Parliament began on Monday and is scheduled to conclude on April 8.

  • BJP candidates win both Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat

    By ANI
    GANDHINAGAR: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates Dineshchamdra Jemalbhai Ananvadiya and Rambhai Harjibhai Mokariya won both Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat on Monday.

    The seats had fallen vacant following the demise of Congress MP Ahmed Patel and BJP MP Abhay Ganpatray Bhardwaj.

    Two separate bypolls were held to fill two seats due to demise of Patel and Bhardwaj.

    Last Thursday was the last date for filing nominations but Congress had not fielded any candidate. The two nominees of BJP were already expected to get elected unopposed from the state.

    Patel had been elected to the Upper House five times from Gujarat, his native state, and served the Congress in various capacities including its treasurer. Patel had been elected to Rajya Sabha in 2017 in a hard-fought contest that evoked wide interest. He had suffered complications due to COVID-19 and died in November last year in a Gurgaon hospital.

    Abhay Bhardwaj, a BJP MP and a practising lawyer from Rajkot who was elected to the upper house in June 2020, died in December while undergoing treatment for COVID-19.

    Sources said Congress decided not to put a candidate as it did not have the numbers after the Election Commission’s decision to hold “two separate byelections” to fill the vacancies from the state.

    In the 180-member Gujarat assembly, Congress has 65 MLAs while BJP has 111. 

  • No compromise on issues affecting common man, says new Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge

    By PTI
    THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposing the government just for the sake of doing so was not his style of functioning, new leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said, but made it clear there would be no compromise on issues affecting the common man.

    “We are not opposing the government just for the sake of opposition. We oppose the government’s wrong policies affecting the common man,” he told PTI to a query on how he would function as Leader of the Opposition.

    Kharge, who became LoP this week following the retirement of Ghulam Nabi Azad, flagged the ongoing farmers stir demanding repeal of the three farm laws enacted by Parliament last year, “flouting all procedures” and demanded that they be withdrawn.

    He suggested that the government come up with fresh proposals after withdrawing these controversial laws and refer them to a parliamentary standing committee for scrutiny.

    The senior Congress leader visited Kerala on Friday to address a public meeting organised in Kollam as the Congress-led UDF’s ‘Aiswarya Kerala Yatra’, led by senior party leader Ramesh Chennithala arrived in Kollam.

    The yatra is being organised to reach out to people ahead of the assembly polls likely to be held in April-May.

    Kharge, a hardcore Gandhi family loyalist, said his party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had asked him to “highlight the issues of the poor people” on the floor of the House.

    “We raise the issues (in Parliament) not to become famous. We take up the issues affecting the poor. Somebody should talk”, the senior Congress leader said.

    The 78-year-old veteran leader, with over 50 years’ experience in politics, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP to listen to the voices of agitating farmers and address their grievances.

    “The farmers have been agitating against the new farm laws for past few months and demanding that they be withdrawn as it abolishes the MSP and the Mandi system We are all supporting their demand. The government has failed to satisfy the farmers, the major stakeholders, while bringing in these laws and should withdraw them,” he said.

    Kharge came down on the Centre on the issue, alleging that the government was using all its machinery to divide the farmers by terming them as ‘Khalistanis’ and ‘Pakistanis’.

    The LoP alleged that the incidents at the Red Fort on January 26 was a planned conspiracy by the government was one such move to cause divisions among the farmers and was done to ‘hide its failures’.

    He also flayed the government over the increasing fuel prices, saying they were doing “a great injustice” to the people.

    “Petrol prices are at an all time high, while international crude oil prices have touched a record low. By hiking prices day by day, the central government is doing a great injustice to the people of this country”, he said.

    Kharge also urged Kerala’s ruling CPI(M)-led LDF government to reduce state taxes on petrol and diesel to ease the burden on the people.

  • Rajya Sabha panels improve performance, Venkaiah Naidu writes to chiefs to enhance attendance

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has urged chairpersons and members of eight parliamentary standing committees to work towards ensuring attendance at over 50 percent as he highlighted that the panels have shown improvement in working hours.

    The functioning of the eight Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees of Rajya Sabha has improved substantially with 15 percent increase in attendance and more than 16 percent improvement in the average duration of meetings since their reconstitution in September 2019 over that of the previous two years.

    Appreciating the improved performance, Chairman Naidu urged the chairmen and members of the panels to work towards ensuring over 50 per cent attendance, besides targeting a minimum duration of two-and-half hours in each meeting given the efforts and costs involved in holding the meetings.

    Naidu wrote the chairpersons of all eight committees detailing outcomes and detailed appraisals of the analysis of functioning of these committees since September 2017.

    The Committee on Education, Women, Child, Youth and Sports reported the highest average attendance of 65.30 pc, followed by the Committee on Health and Family Welfare (52.46 pc) and the Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture (50.42 pc), an internal report said.

    Since September 2017, the eight committees of Rajya Sabha have held a total of 355 meetings — 134 in 2017-18, 49 in 2018-19 and 172 since September 2019 — according to an analysis conducted by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

    These committees are reconstituted in September every year by the Chairman of Rajya Sabha.

    Each Committee has 10 members from Rajya Sabha and 21 from Lok Sabha.

    Attendance of 11 of the 31 members of each committee constitutes the quorum.

    The eight committees of Rajya Sabha clocked average attendance of close to 50 percent (49.34 pc) in 172 meetings held since September 2019, marking a 15 percent increase over the average attendance of 42.90 percent for the previous two years (2017-19), sources said.

    While no committee recorded average attendance of 50 per cent during the two-year period of 2017-19, three committees clocked more than 50 per cent attendance in the meetings held since September 2019, according to the data compiled by the secretariat.

    The average duration of meetings of these eight committees held since September 2019 improved to two hours and seven minutes, an increase of over 16 per cent over the average duration of the meetings held during the previous two years (2017-19), sources said.

    The Rajya Sabha chairman, on the concluding day of the first part of the Budget Session, urged the members to ensure effective functioning of these committees during the recess when committees examine the Demands for Grants of various departments/ministries as proposed in the General Budget for 2021-22.

    “The Department Related Standing Committees of the Parliament, introduced in 1993 have come to be acknowledged as instruments of effective functioning on behalf of the Parliament given their bipartisan consideration of various major issues, policies, Demands for Grants and legislative proposals as chosen/referred to them.

    “The functioning of these Committees, particularly, during non-session periods highlights that Parliament functions not only during the sessions but round the year,” Naidu said in his letters.