Staff Reporter / New Delhi
Eight Rajya Sabha members have been suspended from the House for the remaining part of Monsoon Session for their ‘unruly behaviour’ during the passage of two bills relating to the farming sector on Sunday.
They are Rajiv Satav, Ripun Bora and Nazeer Hussain–all Congress, Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen, both Trinamool Congress, K.K. Ragesh and Elamaram Kareem, both CPI-M and Sanjay Singh of Aam Aadmi Party.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, V. Muraleedharan moved the motion to suspend these members for creating ruckus and disrespecting the Chair by their unruly behaviour.
The motion was accepted with voice vote and thereafter Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu announced the names of the suspended members in the House.
Mr. Naidu also condemned yesterday’s incident terming it unacceptable and condemnable. He also said that the incident has tarnished the image of the Upper House and it was a bad day.
Mr. Naidu also said some members used un-parliamentary language and threatened Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who was conducting the House proceedings.
Mr. Naidu said that the agitating members also defied social distancing and other COVID norms by trooping into the well of House.
The Chairman rejected the No Confidence motion moved by the 46 opposition members against the Deputy Chairman, Harivansh citing that the notice was not in the proper format.
He said, it does not fulfil the requirement of fourteen days’ notice period for moving the no-confidence motion.
Earlier, after the laying of papers, members raised several issues of public importance during Zero Hour.
Binoy Viswam (CPI) made the demand to provide face masks free of cost to poor and vulnerable sections of society to help them combat the threat of pandemic.
He said the masks must of good quality so that the spread of COVID-19 can be prevented.
G K Vasan of TMC-M raised the issue of manual scavenging, and said scavenging of sewers and gutters manually goes against human dignity.
He said it will lead to promote discrimination in the society as only persons belonging to particular sections of society are engaged in manual scavenging.
He reminded that there have been more than 100 deaths of scavengers while cleaning the gutters last year.
Stating that in the interest of social justice and safety of the scavengers, he appealed to the Government to enforce the laws strictly or bring in a new powerful law so that the country put an end the shameful practice for ever.
Anil Desai of Shiv Sena raised the issue of using harmful and poisonous pesticides by farmers. He said some pesticides are not good and have harmful effects on the health of farmers, he said adding in recent years 63 farmers died while spraying these pesticides in cotton, soybean, and other crops in Yavatmal and other districts of Maharashtra.
PL Punia of Congress sought deployment of 7 CRPF battalions in Chhattisgarh that were sanctioned in 2018 for anti-Naxal operations. He said 10 CRPS battalions have been freed from Jammu and Kashmir recently and these can be used to deploy the promised 7 battalions in Chhattisgarh to tackle Naxal threat.
Dola Sen of Trinamool Congress raised the issue of contractual employees of BSNL not being paid wages since April 2019.
She said BSNL has offered VRS to its permanent works but has failed to pay the contractual workers.
Prasanna Acharya of Biju Janata Dal demanded naming of the Paradip port in Odisha after Biju Patnaik as per the central government policy of renaming important ports in the memory of great sons of India.
Biju Patnaik is one of the builders of modern Odisha, he said adding he was a pilot who rescued the freedom fighters of Indonesia from the clutches of Dutch in 1948.
Mr Acharya said Biju Patnaik was the founding father of Paradip Port Trust in Odisha.
P Wilson of DMK raised the issue of the Union Public Service Commission, the Staff Selection Commission and other recruiting bodies planning to hold entrance examinations from October 4 in various states simultaneously.
He said these entrance examinations are going to be conducted flouting the ICMR norms endangering the public health and public interest.
He said the competitive examinations are not like qualifying examinations which should be held without any delay.
Already 50 per cent of the vacancies, in each Department, He sought postponement of all competitive examinations which are to be held in October and November.
K C Venugopal of Congress said banks are refusing to give loans to the small and micro enterprises (MSME).
Roopa Ganguly (BJP), in a special mention, demanded standardising guidelines to address loss and inconvenience to passengers due to changes in flight routes during Covid-19.
Subhash Chandra Singh of BJD sought setting up of a committee to revise MGNREGA norms to benefit migrant workers affected by lockdown.
Ripun Bora of the Congress demanded stopping of privatisation of Guwahati airport while K K Ragesh of the CPI-M wanted Chitrakoot to be developed as a tourism centre.
Dr. Amar Patnaik (BJD) sought classical status to Odissi music.
The Upper House today witnessed five adjournments before adjourning finally for the day on account of protests by opposition members.