The Rajya Sabha on Monday unanimously passed the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill along with two Bills on supplementary demands for 2015-16, within minutes without any debate.
The House returned to Lok Sabha the Appropriation (No.4) Bill and the Appropriation (No. 5) Bill containing the second batch of supplementary demands as part of grants for 2015-16 to meet government’s expenditure.
As the House reassembled at 2 pm after four adjournments earlier, the Opposition criticised the government’s move to bring the Juvenile Justice Bill through the supplementary agenda route.
Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad objected to this saying that the ruling party itself was complicating the issue.
Following this, Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien took up the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2015.
This was passed unanimously through a voice vote without any discussion. Congress leader Hussain Dalwai did not move his motion for certain amendments after his party asked him not to do so.
There was thumping on the desk as the House passed the Bill.
The two Appropriations Bills were also passed in a similar manner without any discussion.
TMC leader Derek O’Brien stood up and told the Chair that it was important to mention that the Bills were passed unanimously and not in a din.
To this, Mr. Kurien said, “How can there be din? There is perfect calm and tranquility. Everybody is cool. A cool breeze is blowing. I don’t know where this breeze is coming from.”
As Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi sought taking up of more Bills, the Opposition members argued that it was decided at the all-party meeting that after the passage of the Bills, there would be debates on issues like intolerance, floods, price rise and the issue of Arunachal Pradesh, on which there was an agreement.
As Mr. Naqvi insisted that more Bills be passed on Monday, Congress members came into the aisles and then entered the Well shouting slogans demanding the resignation of the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged bungling in the DDCA.
DDCA row in Parliament
- » Congress MP K.C. Venugopal raises the DDCA issue in Lok Sabha.The Speaker says that he can talk about the issue without naming Arun Jaitley.
- » "Delhi didn't have a cricket stadium. It had a maidan so we raised money since BCCI just gave Rs. 4 crores for infrastructure," says Mr. Jaitley repsonds to K.C. Venugopal's question.
- » "DDCA sold ad spaces on tender basis; PSUs did the civil work and the remaining work was done through sub-contracting. For a total sum Rs. 114 crore, we made a stadium with a capacity of taking 42,000 people. Contrary to that Congress built Jawaharlal Nehru stadium spending Rs. 900 crores. No one raised doubts on that expenditure," Jaitley responds.
