As the monsoon session of Parliament began on Wednesday amid sloganeering by Opposition members, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan started the day by swearing in new members and taking up obituary references.
Mahajan condoled the deaths of former members, including Bahadur Singh, Sanat Kumar Mandal and Kandala Subrahmanyam. The Speaker also condoled the deaths of several Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan.
Samajwadi Party and Telugu Desam Party MPs protested in the well of the House over different issues, including mob lynching cases and a demand for a special status for Andhra Pradesh.
As the MPs raised "we want justice" slogans in the Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan requested them to let the House function.
Earlier, A. Sampath, CPI(M) member, gave an adjournment notice for a debate on mob lynching.
Mahajan also announced that the Parliament premises are in wi-fi mode. "This will enable the members to go paperless," said the Speaker.
She then proceeded to the Question Hour. Mahajan congratulated Assam's Hima Das, who made history by winning the gold medal in the women's 400 metre event at the IAAF World U20 Championships.
When the Speaker asked Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia to ask his supplementary question, he stood up and said: "The government which led farmers to commit suicide, under whose regime women are being raped everyday...we move a no-confidence motion against you." Mahajan intervened and asked him to stop.
To a question by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor whether the revenue deficit was due to e-commerce delivery and that what was India Post doing to tap rural penetration, Minister of communication (independent charge) Manoj Sinha said about 680 branches of payment banks have been started.
He also said India Post is aiming at rural penetration by giving a thrust to India Post Banks. We are working on increasing revenue through parcel services and 1.5 lakh access points in the villages have been started.
--IANS
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