He also noted that the session had seen the passing of the first private member's bill in 36 years.
- She (Harsimrat Kaur) had sent a request letter to me to make a statement on food park
- This is the second time she has made a statement... Read the statement
- Are you challenging me?
- Go through the record and then come to me
"You cant raise it five times... They (government) cancelled food park... five times the government has responded... Is it not repition? Rules dont allow it," said Congress' Deepender Hooda
- When Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue in Parliament, I had given an assurance that I would personally look into the matter.
- I also ensured he was sent the relevant information over the matter
- I do not understand why there should be a problem even after there have been two statements over the matter
Rajya Sabha adjourned for the fifth time as Opposition seeks Union minister Nitin Gadkari's resignation over auditor's report indicting company linked to him.
- India has credible information of Dawood Ibrahim being in Pakistan
- Will put pressure on Pakistan if needed, we will get Dawood Ibrahim
Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day after uproar by Congress demanding Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's resignation over CAG indictment.
- Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 8, 2015
Rajya Sabha adjourns for the 5th time for 2 hours amid heated exchanges between Cong, BJP over demand for Gadkari's resignation after CAG in
- Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 8, 2015
Rajya Sabha adjourns briefly after uproar by Congress demanding Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's resignation over CAG indictment.
- Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 8, 2015
Lok Sabha adjourns for briefly following uproar over govt's plan to extend House for three days without consulting Oppn.
- Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 8, 2015
India has taken a huge step forward towards a historic land agreement with Bangladesh today to settle a long-simmering border dispute.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally thanked Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in the Lok Sabha after law-makers cleared a land swap that Bangladesh and India have been negotiating for years.
The constitutional amendment that was approved by the lower house is intended to end decades of uncertainty for tens of thousands of citizens living in enclaves on the "wrong" side of their homeland's border. 15 states in India now have to clear the amendment, which is unlikely to be a problem.
Dozens of enclaves exist on either side of the border, a historical oddity left after the partition in 1947.
The new law provides that in case a heinous crime has been committed by a person in the age group of 16-18 years it will be examined by the Juvenile Justice Board to assess if the crime was committed as a 'child' or as an 'adult'.
The amended bill also proposes to streamline adoption procedures for orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children. It establishes a statutory status for the Child Adoption Resources Authority (CARA).
The major amendments include the removal of Clause 7 that relates to the trial of a person above the age of 21 years as an adult for committing any serious or heinous offence when the person was between the ages of 16-18 years; enhancing the period of preliminary inquiry by the Juvenile Justice Board in case of heinous offences committed by children in the age group of 16-18 years; increasing the reconsideration period for surrender of children by parents or guardians; enhancing the period for inter-country adoption in case the child is not given for domestic adoption; assigning the role of designated authority to monitor the implementation of the Bill to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and making the central and state governments responsible for spreading awareness on the provisions of the bill.
Rajya Sabha clears the Constitution amendment bill to enable the ratification of Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh.
- Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 6, 2015
- There will be uniformity of taxation across the country; there'll be seamless transfer of goods and services.
- To pass on constitutional amendment you need positive votes.
- Mr Jaitley clarifies - whatever Mr Moily is referring to as new proposals are the same proposals that went to the Standing Committee in 2011 and they made some recommendations.
- Original constitution also had a transition provision, that is, Article 392
- What existed in the original Constitution, if it exists in a constitutional amendment , then that isn't a violation since we are moving to a different system of taxation
- Power to remove difficulties lies with the President, and therefore with the council of ministers. It is not indefinite. It is only in the transitional phase.
- This argument is no longer valid that it has not gone to a standing committee. It spent two and a half years in front of a standing committee
- If you want to further delay the GST Bill, the deadline of April 1, 2016 will be lost
- State finance ministers and Centre must work together
- I beseech you, rise above party considerations. If all our chief ministers agree, why are we delaying it? And that means your states will suffer.
This bill should be referred to the Select Committee, it affects a lot of ordinary people: D Raja on Real Estate Bill pic.twitter.com/j4Gg3nc2xW
- ANI (@ANI_news) May 5, 2015
This is the government's last chance to pass the GST Bill this session and sources said the government was ready for a showdown in Rajya Sabha, or the upper house, where it is in minority. Privately, government managers concede there might not be enough time to pass the bill this session - Lok Sabha adjourns on May 8, Rajya Sabha on May 13.
The Goods and Services Tax Bill, which aims to replace the country's complex array of duties with a simpler tax regime, faces the problem of numbers. As a Constitutional Amendment Bill, it needs support from two-thirds of both Houses.
- The current status quo of the country is that 15% of the GDP is the earning and 60% of its people are dependent on it.
- We want the people living in rural areas to earn a better living.
- When the growth of a country goes up, the revenue also goes up.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on farmers' issues:
- Your government says "make in India" hona chahiye... hamaari sarkaar, aapki Sarkar, but not farmers' Sarkar.
- Indian Prime Minister is in the country for some time. He should visit Punjab too and listen to farmers.
- Does farmer not do "Make in India?".
- Farmers are crying in mandis, there are in pain
- Your minister says farmers committing suicide are cowards, criminals
- Your government did not help, farmers suffered. You stopped their bonus, farmers suffered
- There is no gag order and the Prime Minister of India is perfectly entitled to say that what happened in the last 60 years, we will break away from that and present an honest government to the people of India
- I am surprised at this new-found dialectics of the Marxist parties. According to them, with their new changed strategy, India is not defamed by acts of corruption, India is only defamed when you refer to acts of corruption.
Deepender Singh Hooda:
- Rule 220 is impregnable. The matter should be referred to standing committee.
- BJP always does a U-turn. And now, they want to preach.
Mallikarjun Kharge:
- If there are new amendments then the bill goes to the standing committee... If not, why have the committee then?
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley speaks in the Lok Sabha on the Constitutional amendment for the Goods and Services Tax, which was tabled in the House earlier:
- Goods and Services Tax (GST) can lead to 2 per cent increase in GDP.
- The UPA must start supporting legislation that was introduced my itself.
- You should be happy that the good work that was done by your government... I'm accepting that, complimenting you and taking it forward.
- I request the Speaker to allow a start to the debate on this subject.
(AAP leader Bhagwant Mann speaking in the Lok Sabha on Thursday)
Members from a number of parties request Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien to allow discussion without time limits. Mr Kurien said the matter can be discussed till 6 pm.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke in the Lok Sabha on the death of Gajendra Singh, the farmer from Rajasthan who hanged himself at an AAP rally in Delhi on Wednesday:
- Nothing is more important than human life.
- It should be our determination to find a solution to this problem.
- The issue has been there for a long time.
- We will take all suggestions.
- We have to find a way and we can't leave farmers helpless.
- We have to share his grief and think about the future of farmers.
- We are many parties but this is a huge nation. We need to work together.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh addresses Lok Sabha on the death of Gajendra Singh, the farmer from Rajasthan who hanged himself at an AAP rally on Wednesday.
- The incident is indeed very tragic and shameful.
- Such incidents should not be politicised, as most members have said in this House.
- I offer my condolences and on behalf of the Prime Minister and the government to Gajendra Singh's family.
- Policemen at the spot alerted the control room and asked for a fire tender with a long ladder, so that this person on the tree could be brought down.
- The Delhi Police tried to stop the crowd from provoking Gajendra Singh.
In such cases, people involved in such acts should be engaged in conversation and persuaded. - But the people at the rally kept clapping, making noise.
- The incident is being investigated. In all this, some people at the rally climbed up the tree and untied one end of the cloth that was tried to the tree.
- In this, the man fell down and he was taken to RML Hospital in a police vehicle, where he was declared dead on arrival.
- The investigation has been handed to the crime branch of the Delhi Police. I have asked police to investigate this in a time-bound manner.
- No government will say it is anti-farmer. All governments will claim to be pro-farmers.
- I agree with Mulayam Singh Yadav. He said that this isn't just the government's responsibility.
- Opposition and the government should get together and think of ways to get farmers out of this crisis.
- We should contemplate why the contribution of the 58 per cent of the population involved in agriculture has shrunk to 14 per cent of the GDP.
- We must figure out what the cause of this is.
- More than 60 per cent population still relies on food security.
- I have said what the police's role was. If an honourable member wants a clarification, I will give it. But please listen to me with patience.
- When were farm loans waived? In the year when elections were held and not due to any natural calamity (cites CAG report).
- Not calling the opposition 'anti farmer', I am talking about actions that can be taken.
Sharad Yadav (JDU) speaks in the Rajya Sabha:
- The government's procurement policy can provide relief.
- The crop that farmers have managed to salvage from the unseasonal rains should be procured immediately by the government.
Mayawati (BSP) speaks in Rajya Sabha:
- Centre should look at waiving farm loans.
- There have been many announcements made by the Centre and state governments but the farmers are not getting adequate compensation in time.
- So, I request that the procedure for giving compensation be changed.
Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) speaks on the issue in the Lok Sabha:
- Make farmers independent, you will not need to take loans from any country in the world.
Ghulam Nabi Azad (Congress) speaks in the Rajya Sabha on the death of the farmer who hanged himself at an AAP rally.
MB Rajesh (CPM) speak on the issue in the Lok Sabha:
- This isn't an isolated incident. A farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes.
- This is a direct result of the neo-liberal policies pursued by various government.
- This isn't suicide, this is homicide and the culpability lies with the government.
- I request the PM to come out of Twitter and see the ground reality.
Saugata Roy (Trinamool) speaks in the Lok Sabha:
- How unresponsive and unsympathetic has our polity and society become? No one took steps to persuade him to come down. He climbed tree at 12:50, hung himself at 1:50.
- I think we should order a judicial inquiry into why no one acted when the drama was played out in full view.
- Don't want to make a political point but I think is unfortunate that the AAP rally and speeches went on while this man was committing suicide.
- Shall we be bound by bureaucratic rules and practices when people die, commit suicide?
- Want to know when the government will provide compensation to farmers affected by crop loss.
- I saw PM's tweet. I would have been happy if he came to the House and expressed his anguish.
Deepender Singh Hooda (Congress) speaks in Lok Sabha on the death of the farmer from Rajasthan, who hanged himself at the AAP rally on Wednesday:
- I believe the sequence of events and the pictures that the country saw have shaken our conscience and many people need to introspect.
- Why wasn't the farmer stopped as the events unfolded?
- Why did the police no come forward? Responsibility needs to be fixed.
- The other side of this story is the crisis farmers are facing.
- We have highlighted the problems faced by the farmers in this House.
- We are humans first, politicians, journalists second.
- We want that the government declare adequate compensation for the wheat crop (damaged by unseasonal rain).
- We want the government to think of loan waivers for farmers.
- I demand, on behalf of the Congress, that the Prime Minister come and speak on what his government is doing.
- Media should have been humane too.
- When the farmer threw his suicide note there was a run to grab it, instead of trying to stop it.
I too am pained by yesterday's incident. I watched it on TV. If some good comes out of our discussion of yesterday's incident it will be good. The Home Minister will be here at noon. At that time, every member who has given me a notice will be given an opportunity to speak on the issue and make any suggestions to the government: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan
This is a very important issue. The government has no problem in discussing this important issue in the House. I request Khargeji not to distract from this important issue. It is a serious matter. It should not be politicised: Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu
Congress's Parliamentary party leader Mallikarjun Kharge speaks in Lok Sabha, urging Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to suspend Question Hour to take up discussion on the death of Gajendra Singh, the Rajasthan farmer who hanged himself at a rally of the Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday.
Congress gives notice for adjournment motion in Lok Sabha on the issue of farmer's death at AAP rally in Delhi: PTI
- Want to talk about the PM again, you will like what I'm about to say
- I want to praise the "nation's PM" again, not "yours" but nation's PM
- I want to speak on net neutrality. Government wants to distribute the internet among big industrialists
- Over 1 million people are fighting for net neutrality and the government is trying to carve out the net and hand it over to the corporates
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi seeks suspension of Question Hour, wants adjournment motion to be taken up on net neutrality issue.
"I am going to mention a few words about it in the Parliament just now, you will hear it," he said just before he entered the House.
The move is seen as a setback for opposition parties, which wanted the bill referred to a standing committee for further debate.
The steps taken are to give temporary relief to those affected. We have to keep in mind the resources that the government has available- jitna atta, utni roti.
- Who represents the farmers, the people have decided.
- The government has raised the compensation for crop failure from Rs 1 lakh to 4 lakhs.
- When the recent hailstorm struck farmers, our minister were sent to different states. I visited Telangana personally.
- The recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission should be carefully studied and should be implemented, we agree.
- We have to put our heads together and find a long lasting solution to the problems of the country's farmers.
- I have another suggestion for the Prime Minister. The government is of the industrialists and corporates. 60% of the country's population is dependent of agriculture. I have a suggestion - He should change sides, will benefit him.
- If you hurt 60% of the country's population today, they will hurt you tomorrow.
The Prime Minister certainly understands political calculations. He won the elections. But it raises a question in my mind. Why is he upsetting 60% of the country's population? (people dependent of agriculture)
- Government says 180 lakh hectares was first reported by states and then they say 106 lakh hectares. But when the PM held a video conference with the state governments - the figure that they stated was 80 lakh hectares.
- Rahul Gandhi: I have a suggestion. Why doesn't the PM go and see for himself how much area has been affected?
- Your government is of the industrialists, you know that and we know that.
- Green revolution happened because farmers were given abundant credit and were given an MSP (Minimum Selling Price) to sell his crop.
- ]In our time, agriculture grew. The average increase in credit was 20% each year. The "Acche Din" government has given only an increase of 5%.
- MSP is where it was, agricultural credit has not been improved and agricultural growth is 1%.
Issue raised by Jyotiraditya Scindia is important, needs to be responded to. No one in government approves this sort of comments.
Request the house to proceed with question hour, whenever you give permission we can have a discussion on this.
Pradhan Mantri ka naam mat lijiye Mallikarjun Khargeji, unko beech mein mat laiye (Don't take PM's name and drag him into this)
Also says, "We want the PM to apologise and seek the resignation of such ministers and MPs."
I appeal for the support of all parties, so that in the second session the nature of talks will be positive.
With the support of all the parties, there will be good discussions for the betterment of the country.
I am sure this leg of the session will witness even higher standards of debate to fulfil people's aspirations: PM @narendramodi
- PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 20, 2015Opposition will strongly raise both, Kashmir issue & Land ordinance in Parliament: Tariq Anwar, NCP on Parlsession pic.twitter.com/9P3v9UgaSW
- ANI (@ANI_news) April 20, 2015Rise & shine. LS starts today but RS only on Thurs... like when half the classes in school are open and the other half shut. Funny feeling
- Derek O'Brien (@quizderek) April 20, 2015
Parliament session begins today. I look forward to a productive session, filled with constructive debates on several issues.
- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 20, 2015
On the eve of resumption of Budget Session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday voiced hope that it would be full of "outcomes", noting that the productivity of Parliament has "reached 125 per cent" since his government came to power.
With the government slated to table a copy of the land ordinance in the Lok Sabha today, the house is expected to witness a stormy start as it meets after a recess for the second half of the budget session.