This week Parliament gave its seal of approval to the Finance Bill, 2022 with the Rajya Sabha returning it to the Lok Sabha. Parliament also passed the Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2022.
On Monday, Lok Sabha has passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The bill seeks to amend the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 for inclusion of certain community in the list of Scheduled Tribes in relation to the State of Tripura.
In his reply, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda asserted that the welfare of the tribal community has been a priority for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also said the government will bring more such amendments relating to other states. Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra introduced the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 and Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Order (2nd Amendment) Bill, 2022 related to Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha. It seeks to authorize the police to take measurements of convicts and other persons for the purpose of identification and investigation of criminal matters.
While, Rajya Sabha took up discussion on the Appropriation Bill 2022 to authorise payment and appropriation of certain sums from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India for the financial year 2022-23. It also took up discussion on the Finance Bill 2022. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moved the Appropriation Bill 2022 and the Finance Bill 2022 for the consideration of the House.
On Tuesday, Parliament gave the approval to Appropriation Bill, 2022 and the Finance Bill, 2022 with Rajya Sabha returning it following a discussion. The bills were already passed by the Lok Sabha earlier.
Replying to the discussion on the Union Budget 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India continues to remain among the top five Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) destinations in the world. She said the FDI inflows into India till December 2021 was over 500 billion US dollars, which is 65 per cent more than the amount received in the 10 years of UPA government. She said this is because investors have trusted the economic management of the Modi government. She said the FDI inflows in 2020-21 was over 81 billion US Dollars compared to over 74 billion US dollars in the preceding financial year.
On Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha passed the Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2022 by a voice vote. The bill seeks to remove the Bhogta caste from the list of Scheduled Castes and include certain communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes for the state of Jharkhand.
Replying to a debate on the bill, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda said the government will bring more such amendments relating to other states in the House. He said amendments have been made for states of Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka and it is being done now in the case of Uttar Pradesh, Tripura and Jharkhand.
On Wednesday day, the Lok Sabha passed ‘The Chartered Accountants, Cost and Works Accountants and Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill. It aims at revamping the functioning of the three accountancy institutes.
The Lok Sabha also passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The Bill seeks to further amend the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 and proposes to unify the three existing Municipal Corporations of Delhi into one Municipal Corporation of Delhi. It envisages bringing about greater transparency, improved governance and more efficient delivery of civic service for the people of Delhi. At present the three corporations in Delhi — North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations — have a total of 272 seats. While North and South corporations have 104 Wards each, the East corporation has 64 Wards. The Bill was moved by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the House.
Replying to the discussion on the Bill, Union Home Minister Amit Shah countered the opposition allegations saying that this Bill has been brought by following all the constitutional norms. He clarified that as Delhi is Union Territory, Parliament has the right to legislate on the matters related to National Capital Territory of Delhi. He said, the new Bill in no way encroaches upon the rights of Delhi government. Mr. Shah alleged that Delhi government has not disbursed 33 thousand crore rupees to the three Municipal Bodies.
On Thursday, the Rajya Sabha bid farewell to 72 of its retiring members with Prime Minister urging them to share their experience gained from within the four walls of the House to all four directions in the best interests of the country and help inspire the coming generations. Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asked the legislators across the country to be propelled by passion, performance and procedural integrity and desist from disrupting the law-making bodies while upholding the honour and privilege bestowed on them by the people. Several members cutting across party lines shared their fond memories with the retiring colleagues and hoped that they would return to the House. Many MPs shared emotional moments while the House witnessed some lighter moments as well. The retiring MPs including seven nominated members are retiring between March and July this year, which is one-third of the total strength of the Upper House. The retiring members represent 19 states and some of them have experience of five terms. Among those who are retiring include A K Antony, Ambika Soni, P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, Suresh Prabhu, Praful Patel, Subramanian Swamy, Prasanna Acharya, Sanjay Raut, Naresh Gujral, Satish Chandra Mishra, MC Mary Kom, Swapan Dasgupta and Narendra Jadhav.
In his remarks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized that experience has more power than knowledge and the MPs should take it forward in the service of the nation. Modi said “We may be moving out of these four walls of this House but we should take this experience from here to all the four directions in the best interests of the country. He said four Ministers -Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ram Chandra Prasad are completing their tenures during this period. Extending his best wishes to those retiring, he told them to come again to the House. Modi also noted that when experienced people retire, a lot would be said about them in the House but the responsibility of those remaining increases. But, the members who remain have to take forward the tales of experience left behind those retiring”, he said.
In his remarks, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu called upon the members to ensure that the expectations and aspirations of the people are incorporated in designing laws and policies. Naidu also voiced concern over the House having lost over 35 per cent of the functional time due to disruptions since 2017. He informed the House that the retiring members have a total parliamentary experience of 181 terms including 143 terms in the Rajya Sabha and 38 in the Lok Sabha earlier. Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh expressed confidence that the retiring members, through their public engagement would continue to work to increase the confidence of citizens and students in politics and parliamentary democracy. Leader of the House Piyush Goyal, who is also retiring, said that all those members who are retiring have made their valuable contributions during their tenure in enhancing the image of Parliament through their experiences and debates. He said the standards they have set will inspire everyone and will also be remembered. Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said that after listening to the Prime Minister and other members, he realized how important the Rajya Sabha is.
In the Lok Sabha, Congress President Sonia Gandhi expressed her concern over the budgetary cut for MGNREGA saying that several states have negative balance in their accounts to the tune of five thousand rupees which has led to delays in payments to workers. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, she urged the government to make adequate allocations to MGNFREGA. Responding to this, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh and Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur accusing her of politicizing the issue and claimed that her remarks were far from truth. He said the budgetary allocation for MGNREGA was 33 thousand crore rupees in 2013-14 whereas under Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
it has reached 1.12 lakh crore rupees. The Minister alleged that MGNREGA scheme saw massive corruption under the UPA government, which was weeded out by the Modi government. He said under Prime Minister Modi, geo-tagging of assets created under the MGNREGA was introduced and payments were directly made to the workers in their Jan Dhan accounts. However, Congress members were up on their feet protesting against the remarks made by the Minister.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav said in the Lok Sabha that India has emerged as the developing nations’ voice that can neither be suppressed nor ignored. Replying to the discussion on Climate Change the Minister said when it comes to environment, India has always been a solution-provider in the world. He said India, under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, was among the few countries in the world that not only set Nationally Determined Contributions in 2015 but achieved them before time, setting an example for others. Underlining that the Prime Minister has often talked about climate justice, Mr Yadav said developed nations who are responsible for carbon emissions must take the responsibility.
The Minister said the carbon emission of the developed countries that account for a population of 17 per cent in the world, is 60 per cent while India’s population is 17 per cent and its carbon emission is four per cent, he said adding that India’s lifestyle can teach the world how to live in harmony with environment.
On Thursday, Earth Science Minister Jitendra Singh introduced in the Lok Sabha the Indian Antarctic Bill. It seeks to enforce Indian laws if any unlawful activity happens in the territory occupied by the Indian research stations. He said the Antarctic Treaty makes it mandatory for all 54 countries, who are the signatories to apply their respective laws in area occupied by the country. India has two research stations in the Antarctic-Maitri and Bharti — where scientists are involved in research.
Being Friday, the Rajya Sabha took up the discussion on a private members bill, the Population Regulation Bill, 2019 that seeks to regulate population by promoting the two-child per couple policy. Some of the opposition members who participated in the discussion said that the states which have successfully implemented the family planning must not be made to lose out the central allocations. They alleged that states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab, which have successfully controlled the population are losing out the central assistance.
Intervening in the discussion Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that population control should happen by creating awareness among the people and it should not be made compulsory. He noted that the country has witnessed a population growth rate dip from 1970s and 1980s with the success of various policy measures. He assured the members that the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi was taking a lot of steps to stabilize the country’s population.
The Minister also elaborated on the measures taken by the government in enhancing the healthcare infrastructure in the country, including the increase in the number of MBBS and PG seats across all the states. Late the private member bill was withdrawn. Some of the members raised several matters of public importance in both the Houses of Parliament during the Zero Hours.
