Sonia Gandhi urged the Centre to allocate a proper budget for MGNREGA and pay wages to labourers withing 15 days of work.Parliament Budget Session 2022 Live Updates: Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi lamented the constant cuts in budgetary allocation to MGNREGA, even though timely help was given to crores of affected poor families during COVID and lockdown under the scheme. “This is weakening the legal guarantee of timely payment and jobs. This year’s MGNREGA budget is 35 per cent less than that of 2020 even when unemployment is rising continuously. Due to cuts in the budget payment of workers gets delayed. Supreme Court has called this forced labour,” Gandhi said.
During his farewell speech to the 72 retiring members of the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that academic knowledge often has limitations, but “experience brings easy solutions to problems and reduces the margin of error”. “When such experienced members retire, the House and the country feel the void. Those that remain have added responsibilities and to take forward the work done by these members,” he said. He urged all retiring members to take their experience in all directions of the country.
The Lok Sabha on Thursday is scheduled to discuss The Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022. The Bill amends the SC order to exclude Gond community as a Scheduled Tribe in four districts of Uttar Pradesh – Chandauli, Kushinagar, Sant Kabir Nagar and Sant Ravidas Nagar. The Lower House will also continue its discussion on climate change raised by DMK MP Kanimozhi.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks in the Lok Sabha during the second part of Budget Session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Friday. (PTI)
Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi lamented the constant cuts in budgetary allocation to MGNREGA, even though timely help was given to crores of affected poor families during COVID and lockdown under the scheme.
“This is weakening the legal guarantee of timely payment and jobs. This year's MGNREGA budget is 35 per cent less than that of 2020 even when unemployment is rising continuously. Due to cuts in the budget payment of workers gets delayed. Supreme Court has called this forced labour,” Gandhi said.
She urged the Centre to allocate a proper budget for MGNREGA, pay wages to labourers withing 15 days of work and determine Annual Action Plan of states without delay.]
Bidding farewell to 72 retiring Rajya Sabha members, Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge, also Leader of Opposition in the House, said that there are ups and downs, but one should never leave the ground. "We should keep that in mind while working for the people," he said.
"Rajya Sabha is a permanent House, some members will retire while some others will come, it'll go on forever. We might have a difference of opinions, but we have to ensure that we work efficiently," he added.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said that over the last four years, the August House has lost over 35 per cent of its valuable functional time due to disruptions. 'This needs to be curbed before it is too late. I hope everybody maintains dignity, decorum, and has meaningful discussions,” he said.
He further appealed to the news media to report not just the disruptions of the Parliament but also the constructive discussions.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said that the retirement of about one-third members of the House is a big occasion, adding that the members have a combined experience of 143 terms.
The retiring members include Anand Sharma, A K Antony, Subramanian Swamy, M C Mary Kom and Swapan Dasgupta, while the terms of Nirmala Sitharaman, Suresh Prabhu, M J Akbar, Jairam Ramesh, Vivek Tankha, V Vijayasai Reddy will end in June.
During his farewell speech to the 72 retiring members of the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that academic knowledge often has limitations, but "experience brings easy solutions to problems and reduces the margin of error". "When such experienced members retire, the House and the country feel the void. Those that remain have added responsibilities and to take forward the work done by these members.
"I have confidence that the retiring members are leaving behind a legacy. We must think at times that I have contributed to the House, but the House has also contributed to our lives. We take more from the House than we give to it," Modi said.
He urged all retiring members to take their experience in all directions of the country. "We should strive to ensure that what we have experienced and understood in this House should be written down for the benefit of the future generations," the Prime Minister added.
A Congress MP from Punjab urged the government on Wednesday to bring in a "Pakistan-like" law to restrict the number of guests at weddings to 50 each from the bride and groom's sides as well as to limit the elaborate feasts that get served to the guests.
Speaking during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, Jasbir Singh Gill from Khadoor Sahib said that such a law would not cost the government anything and yet bring in the good wishes of millions while claiming that such a law exists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“This kind of law is needed to limit wastage of money and resources in weddings,” Gills said. India needs to bring in this law in order to save the people, he added.
Citing a wedding feast menu that he was carrying with him as an example, Gill claimed that in some wedding feasts, the guests are served as many as 289 items and the cost comes to around Rs 2,500 per plate.
Rajya Sabha will bid farewell to 72 members who are retiring on Thursday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking in the House on the occasion.
Meanwhile, elections to 13 Rajya Sabha seats across six states will be held today. These seats include the five from Punjab, followed by three in Kerala, two in Assam and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore gave an adjournment motion notice in the Lok Sabha to discuss fuel price hike.
Meanwhile, TRS MP Nama Nageswara Rao moved a motion of adjournment in Lok Sabha to discuss "categorisation of scheduled castes".
Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu on Wednesday said that AAP came to power in Punjab because of his party's "infighting and mistakes" and alleged that Arvind Kejriwal's party had misused Delhi's funds for advertisements.
Participating in the debate in Lok Sabha on the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 that seeks to unify the three municipal corporations of the national capital, Bittu said "there is nothing" in the AAP model of development as its schools and hospitals are funded by the Centre.
"It is because of the Centre's mercy and funding, schools, colleges and hospitals are running in the national capital. Otherwise, what is there in the AAP model? And if their schools are so good, why do AAP MPs move around with their coupons for central school admission," Bittu said. The MP from Punjab, where Congress suffered defeat in the recent assembly polls, said,"The AAP came to Punjab because of our mistakes and infighting. (PTI)
The BJP wants to fight and win polls everywhere on basis of its ideology, programmes, leadership's popularity and performance of the government, and not by unleashing violence against rivals, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday.
Replying to the debate over the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, in Lok Sabha, Shah said the BJP wants to form government everywhere and that is why it fights polls.
"Why did you go to Goa, why are you going to Tripura. You have the right to go, I don't say don't go, every party must go with their ideology, programmes, performance to all places, this is the beauty of democracy," Shah said in an apparent response to remarks made by TMC MP Saugata Roy. Only those who are afraid of losing power can have an objection to it, not the proponents of democracy, he added. (PTI)
Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held once the delimitation exercise is over and after consultation with political parties.
“We have no interest in keeping Jammu and Kashmir under President’s Rule,” Shah said in Lok Sabha while responding to concerns raised by members on Kashmir during the discussion on the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill. (Read more)
Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2022. The Bill seeks to unify the three civic bodies of the national capital. After passing the Bill, the Lower House was adjourned till tomorrow 11 am.
Rajya Sabha on Wednesday was adjourned till tomorrow 11 am.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah in a reply to the discussion on MCD unification Bill said that the Bill is within powers given to Parliament as per Section 239 AA.
The BJP on Wednesday accused the AAP government in Delhi of not giving dues to municipal corporations for political reasons and asserted that the move to merge the three municipal corporations of the national capital was a necessary step for the betterment of the people.
Participating in the discussion on the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri targeted the Congress, alleging that the municipal corporation was divided into three parts in a hurry so that "one family, one party continues to enjoy power". Bidhuri, an MP from South Delhi, pointed put that at the time of the trifurcation of the municipal corporation of Delhi in 2011-12, both at the Centre and in Delhi, there was a Congress government.
He said that when the common and poor people of Delhi started being elected in the corporation, those who praised "one family" did not like it, and the trifurcation was done in a hurry to reduce the powers of the mayor and standing committee chairperson. (PTI)
Rajya Sabha will bid farewell to 72 members who are retiring and Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak in the house on Thursday.
Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge will also speak and bid farewell to these 72 members, including seven nominated members. Naidu on Wednesday announced in the House that Zero Hour and Question Hour will not be taken up so as to enable the leaders and members speak on the occasion.
Sources said will host a dinner Thursday for all the members of Rajya Sabha at his official residence, where mementos will be presented to the 72 retiring members and another 19 who retired earlier who could not receive the mementos. At the dinner, about six Rajya Sabha members will showcase their cultural talent, the sources said. (PTI)
The Opposition on Wednesday dubbed the Rs 1,000 crore package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech last year for the welfare of the tea garden workers in Assam and West Bengal as "jumla", saying not "a penny" has reached the beneficiaries so far.
Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel, however, dismissed the charge and defended the Centre, saying steps are being taken to implement the package to ensure that the benefits reach the targeted beneficiaries "in a systematic manner".
"There is no need to doubt the government policy and intent.... Definitely, it has taken time," she told the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour and gave details of the steps being taken to implement the proposal. Patel was replying to a question from Congress member Gaurav Gogoi, who sought to know about the status of the Rs 1,000 crore package announced by Sitharaman in her budget speech last year for the welfare of the tea garden workers, saying not a penny has reached Assam and Darjeeling in West Bengal. (PTI)
Union Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday questioned the remarks of a Rajya Sabha member that young women below 21 years want to get married as they have nothing to do, and hoped that the MP retracts her statement.
During the Question Hour in the Upper House of Parliament, NCP leader Fauzia Khan said when the issue of child marriage is discussed with parents in a village, they say they don't want to keep their girls unmarried till the age of 18 or 21 years due to lack of security. Even the young girls want to get married, she said.
Khan then asked how should it be ensured that girls are kept occupied in some productive work -- skill development, education and something -- which occupies their mind till they reach a marriageable age. (PTI)
Expressing concern over high spectrum price, a Parliamentary Panel on Wednesday asked the government to pay due attention to the issues raised by telecom operators and take steps for early rollout of the 5G services.
The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, chaired by Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, in its report expressed concern about the 5G rollout delay that will deprive the country of taking advantage of various benefits of 5G when other countries of the world have made noticeable progress in the deployment of the technology.
"It is high time that 5G should be rolled out in India in some specific Use Cases, however, the Committee do not see any progress in that direction. The Committee, therefore, reiterates that the Department need to review all their policies relating to 5G so that the country is not left behind in the race for 5G," the panel said in the report. (PTI)