New Delhi: Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Thursday, July 27, amid continuous protests by opposition members over the violence in Manipur.
The House took up and passed two bills after brief discussions as opposition members kept raising slogans and displaying placards demanding the presence of the prime minister in the lower house.
After an earlier adjournment, when the House assembled at 2 pm, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made a statement on the government’s foreign engagements amid disruptions.
A spat broke out between Union Minister Piyush Goyal and Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury over the opposition disrupting Jaishankar’s statement.
After Jaishankar’s statement, Chowdhury tried to raise a point of order. Goyal stood up and said that he would not allow the Congress leader to speak in protest against the disruption of the external affairs minister’s statement.
As the war of words between the government and the opposition continued, the House was adjourned for 20 minutes.
The House witnessed a total of three adjournments in the day over the Manipur issue.
Jan Vishwas Bill passed amid protests
The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2023, was passed through a voice note amid strong protests from the Opposition parties on PM Modi’s silence in Parliament regarding the ongoing violence in Manipur.
Moving the bill for passing, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said it will promote the ease of doing business by decriminalising a number of provisions.
The bill seeks to promote ease of business by decriminalising minor offences by amending 183 provisions in 42 acts.
It converts several fines to penalties, meaning that court prosecution is not necessary to administer punishments. It also removes imprisonment as a punishment for many offences. All offences under the Post Office Act, 1898 are being removed.
Goyal said around 40,000 provisions and procedures which had the possibility of creating problems for people were either simplified or removed by the Narendra Modi government over the last nine years.
The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2022 was introduced in Lok Sabha on 22 December 2022. The Bill was sent to a Joint Committee of both Houses on 22 December 2022. The report was presented in Lok Sabha on 20 March, 2023.
Bill to amend mineral law introduced
Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi introduced a bill to amend the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023, through a voice note.
When Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was asked by the Chair to speak on the introduction of the bill, he raised the issue of an opposition-backed no-confidence motion moved by his party’s member Gaurav Gogoi.
However, Kirit Solanki, who was presiding over the proceedings, asked him to restrict his speech to the bill.
