Din over Bihar Hooch Tragedy
The hooch tragedy in Bihar echoed in Lok Sabha today as BJP members termed the deaths as mass murder and urged the Centre to take immediate action against the state government under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, holding it responsible for the incident.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Sanjay Jaiswal of BJP claimed that spurious liquor sale has been flourishing in Bihar under the protection of police officers despite a prohibition in place. But the chief minister does not take any action against any of them, he said.
Sushil Kumar Singh of BJP termed the hooch tragedy deaths as “mass murder” and held the Bihar government responsible for it. He said, over 37 people have died and alleged that it is Bihar government-sponsored murder of the people. He alleged that spurious liquor is supplied to every household by the police, with the help and protection of the police in the state despite prohibition in place.
He said, more than 15 such incidents have taken place so far. But the chief minister says those who drink liquor would die or go to jail, and those selling the poisonous liquor would become his party’s candidate to contest elections on his party ticket.
MP from Saran Rajiv Pratap Rudy of BJP also hit out at the Bihar government over the issue and demanded that the Union home ministry send a central team without any delay to take stock of the ground situation in the state. After Rudy raised the issue, some opposition members pointed out there have been deaths in hooch tragedy in Uttar Pradesh also in the past, asking the BJP members why these incidents are not being highlighted in the House.
Bill Passed
Lok Sabha today passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 to include some tribes in Tamil Nadu in the list of Scheduled Tribes.
Replying to a discussion on the bill, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda asserted that the central government is working with spirit of “antyoday” as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With several members seeking inclusion of different communities from their respective states in the list of Scheduled Tribes or other backward communities, Munda said there is a procedure for finalising this. The central government has been following this, he said. Munda said the central government refers to state governments these demands and seek their feedback. Our priority is delivering a permanent solution to these demands, he said.
After the passage of the bill, the House began discussion on the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022 to include a community from Himachal Pradesh into the list of the Scheduled tribes.
Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka of the Congress expressed concern about the displacement of a large number of tribals due to development projects and claimed that they are not getting employment and other promised benefits.
Indra Hang Subba of Sikkim Krantikari Morcha urged the government to work to protect the oral history and dialect of the tribal community.
Independent member Navneet Rana said, Scheduled Tribes population at times face lot of problems in getting caste certificates and called for bigger compensation to them if they are displaced from forest habitat.
P Ravindhranath of AIADMK demanded that the government should ensure reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in private sector. He lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ensuring uplift of the tribal community and noted that India got its first tribal President in Droupadi Murmu.
Hanuman Beniwal of RLP said the budget allocated to the Scheduled Tribes is often under-utilised. He said, efforts should be made to ensure that it is spent on their development.
Virendra Singh Mast of BJP praised the government for working towards the welfare of tribal community.
Debate on Petroleum Prices
Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told the Lok Sabha that six non-BJP ruled states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Kerala and Jharkhand have not reduced the VAT on petroleum products, leading to higher prices of petrol and diesel there. He said, the central government has reduced excise duty on petroleum products and some other states and reduced their Value Added Tax. He said, six states have not reduced the VAT. This led to protests by the opposition members.
The Minister said, currently the petrol price in India is one of the lowest. He said the oil marketing companies together suffered losses of 27,276 crore rupees due to high prices of crude in international markets. The Minister suggested the opposition to impress upon their state governments to reduce the VAT. Puri said India imports more than 85 per cent of its crude oil requirements. Therefore, the prices of petrol and diesel in the country are linked to their respective prices in the international market.
Following the reductions in central excise duty, some of the States and UTs also reduced the VAT rates on petrol and diesel. The minister said India imports more than 60 percent of its domestic LPG consumption. The price of LPG in the country is based on the Saudi Contract Price (SPC), the benchmark for the international price of LPG.
However, he said, the government continues to modulate the effective price to consumers for domestic LPG. Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies have suffered huge losses on the sale of domestic LPG and to compensate for these losses, the government has recently approved a one-time compensation of 22,000 crore rupees to Oil Marketing Companies.
Unsatisfied with the minister’s reply, members belonging to Congress, DMK, TMC and NCP staged a walkout of the house
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urged Housing and Urban Development minister Hardeep Singh Puri to speak to states to try to come out with a framework so that homeless could get houses.
Replying to a question, Puri said the capacity of government shelter homes is 1.25 lakh but occupancy is 50 percent. Puri also said that as per the 2011 census, the total urban houseless population is over 9 lakh. The Centre also asked the states to survey homeless people living on the roadside or in the open who do not have a house.
Om Birla then urged Hardeep Puri to speak to the state governments and draw up a framework to ensure that the homeless get to live in houses.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia informed Lok Sabha that the government is concentrating on last-mile connectivity to Tier-III cities to ensure democratisation of civil aviation in the country.
Replying to a question, Scindia said India has tremendous connectivity between Tier I-II cities. What needs to be strengthened is last-mile connectivity to Tier-III cities. Our government is concentrating on last- mile connectivity to make sure the democratisation of civil aviation does truly take place in the country, Scindia said.
The Minister said the government is looking at the small aircraft scheme launched last year under which sub-20 seater aircraft are being used to provide last-mile connectivity.
In the last round of UDAN, 132 routes have been awarded of which in the major sectors, 16 are helicopter routes, and almost 50 are seaplane routes, Scindia said. To another question on aerosports, Scindia said it is a new area and has tremendous future and potential in the country. The Minister said the government has set up an aerosports organisation, which will be decentralised into different state units.