Din Over Adjournment Notice
Opposition members created din in the upper house after deputy chairman Harivansh disallowed adjournment notices given by seven members.
The House witnessed three brief adjournments during the first hour as opposition members continued to create din. The House witnessed two back-to-back adjournments of 15 minutes each and then again for a few minutes during the Zero Hour.
Opposition members sought clarifications on why their adjournment notices were not taken up and demanded discussions on various issues. They also cited previous precedents in the House when discussions under relevant rules were taken up without any mention of the rule required for suspension of business. This led to uproar following which the Deputy Chairman adjourned the proceedings for 15 minutes first and then again for another 15 minutes when the House met a little after 11.30 AM.
Later, when the House met again Bhubaneshwar Kalita, who was in the chair, adjourned the proceedings for a few minutes till 12 noon.
While opposition members created uproar over not being allowed discussion on issues raised by them, BJP members were also on their feet raising the issue of the Bihar hooch tragedy. Biplab Kumar Dev of BJP demanded a discussion on the hooch tragedy matter in Bihar instead of his listed Zero Hour submission.
Seven opposition members had given adjournment notices for discussing various issues of importance, which were not allowed by the chair.
Raghav Chadha (AAP), Pramod Tiwari, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, L Hanumanthaiah (Congress), Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena), Jebi Mather and Syed Nasir Hussain (Congress) had given adjournment notices on subjects related to concern over government’s alleged attempt to interfere in appointment in higher judiciary, alleged misuse of CBI, ED and other government agencies.
As the deputy chairman urged members to allow the Zero Hour to function, members raised strong objections leading to disruption of the proceedings.
Derek O’Brien, Tiwari and Chaturvedi raised objections and urged the chair to allow discussions as held in the past. Chaturvedi said the House should take up discussion on issues raised by them as they are of importance.
At this, Leader of the House, Piyush Goyal told Chaturvedi that she was casting aspersions.
Debate on Global Warming
The Rajya Sabha today held a discussion on serious effects of global warming and the need for remedial steps, with opposition members saying that it is the responsibility of everyone to jointly tackle it.
Members said everyone has to work together to tackle the problems and urged the government to take a holistic approach by coordinating across various ministries and bringing agencies together to tackle the effects of global warming.
Initiating the discussion, Tiruchi Siva of DMK said global warming is threatening not just India but the entire planet and humanity, and it is time for collective efforts. He said it is not the prerogative of only the Central government, but it is also of the state governments, private sector and the civil society.
Everyone in the country has his own responsibility to tackle this issue. Siva said the environment ministry has to coordinate with other ministries such as agriculture, urban development and industries so that a holistic approach is taken as activities in each of these areas have a consequence on the environment. He also voiced concern over a “recent Environment Impact Assessment notification, the Environment Protection Act, the Water Act, the Forest Conservation Act and the Biodiversity Act”, saying “all these will result in degradation of forest. He said protection and extending the forests will save the nation and the world, which in turn would save humans.
Pramod Tiwari of the Congress and Sandosh Kumar P of the Communist Party of India also raised the “short duration” discussion.
Amee Yajnik of Congress reiterated the need to enhance India’s usage of renewable and clean energy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels while increasing forest cover to meet the net zero target set for 2070. She said, all these require a holistic approach. Unless and until we do not bring a coordinated effort to bring all these agencies together to have an approach to see that we bring down net zero, this will not fructify, she asserted.
Jawahar Sircar of Trinamool Congress said, climate change affects the coastal states of the country the most as one of the most immediate effects is the rise in sea levels. He expressed concern that the heatwave witnessed from mid-April has led to 5 percent less wheat procurement, while the delayed monsoon that followed has led to a lesser yield of paddy crop.
Kavita Patidar of BJP cautioned that the melting of glaciers and wildfires are becoming frequent in a different parts of the world due to climate change, while the rising sea levels are threatening many coastal cities. She said there will be dire consequences unless corrective steps are taken to protect the environment, while pointing out that climate change also has its impact on the economy.
Sanjay Singh of Aam Aadmi Party suggested starting work on linking rivers to bring a permanent solution to floods and droughts in the country. Amar Patnaik of Biju Janata Dal suggested the government to relook into the Disaster Management Act and make changes according to new challenges. He said many of the climate changes are irreversible disasters, not like cyclones that will go away and floods which will be over.
S Niranjan Reddy of YSRCP said India is more vulnerable to global warming and states such as Andhra Pradesh on the eastern coastline are facing a greater risk than those on the western coast. He also said the world is moving towards a climate fund, where the developed countries have larger contributions for pollution and pay towards climate funds, which are used to mitigate the impacts in lesser-polluted countries.
K Keshava Rao of TRS said India is ranked number four on the list of countries most affected by such factors, adding that 10 developed countries account for two-thirds of the emissions worldwide while India contributes only three percent.
A D Singh of Rashtriya Janata Dal said the government should take steps to promote alternative energy sources such as setting up parks to harness tidal energy, wind energy and geothermal energy.
John Brittas of CPIM said, the world is paying the price of the greed of human beings and developed nations.
Sudhanshu Trivedi of BJP pointed out that in the last 100 years, the average temperature of the planet has increased by one degree Celsius and the last 35 years have seen the five hottest summers.
Participating in the discussion, Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party suggested the government start rationing petrol and diesel to mitigate the effect of global warming. He said such measures can lead to loss in elections. He said, stringent measures are required to stop forest cutting.
Ranjeet Ranjan of Congress, John Brittas of CPIM, Aneel Prasad Hegde of JDU, Birendra Prasad Baishya of AGP, Ramji of BSP, Vandana Chavan of NCP and Surendra Singh Nagar of BJP also participated in the discussion.
The discussion remained inconclusive ….