The Lok Sabha on Thursday continued its debate on the Central Universities (amendment) Bill, 2023. Several Opposition MPs demanded Central universities in their own constituencies while speaking in favour of the Bill. The government also shrugged off accusations of cutting of funds to certain universities, rampant casteism, high tribal drop out rates. The Bill was passed via voice vote before the Lower House was adjourned for the day.
The Rajya Sabha concluded its short-duration discussion on India’s economic state of affairs after a response from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Opposition leaders had pointed out hunger, poverty and unemployment trends in the country.
Lok Sabha
The Lower House commenced proceedings with Question Hour, focusing on rising airfares and increase in road accidents. Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia stated that the aviation industry had suffered cumulative losses between Rs 55,000 crore to 1 lakh crore during the COVID-19 pandemic. Enumerating the various steps taken by his ministry, he said that there has been a proportionate decline in fares and that it was his aim to have 42 crore people flying by 2030 from the present 14.5 crore.
Responding to questions on road accidents, Union Minister of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari informed that there were 4.61 lakh accidents in 2022 killed 1.68 lakh people – a 10% increase on a year-over-year basis. 67% of these deaths were of people in the 18 to 45 years age group. He also stated that increase in freeways/expressways entailed relaxing laws to drive at higher speeds, which led to further accidents. Hence, he said, there was a dilemma to consider such demands. After the question hour, the house moved to the Zero Hour where members raised issues specific to their constituencies.
Post lunch, the house continued their pending discussion on the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2023. MPs like K Suresh, Imtiaz Jaleel, Ritesh Pandey expressed concern over the number of dropouts among tribal students in IITs and IIMs. They argued that the Centre must address the rampant casteism, syllabus disparity, discrimination and the poor state of current Central universities before opening yet another university.
RSP’s Kollam MP NK Premachandran raised the issue of selfie points with the PM’s picture in colleges, saying that such politicisation were the reason for lowering reputation of Indian universities. His remarks were rebutted by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey that people were not bothered corrupting students’ minds while reading about ‘invaders’ like Babar, Ibrahim Lodhi, Akbar. The debate was concluded by Union Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan who accused the KCR govt and the Congress for inaction, before moving to pass the Bill.
The Bill was then passed via voice vote and Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha commenced proceedings with matters of hate-speech being raised. Next, Question Hour was held where Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar fielded questions about the Government’s varied responses to the US and Canada government about allegations of murder, visits to Latin America by officials and events held by the Overseas Friends of the BJP. He informed the House that trade with Latin America was nearing $50 billion.
Post lunch, the House resumed its discussion under rule 267 about the economic situation of the country. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated, “The second quarter growth was very high; it is the highest in the world. We continuously maintain that momentum of being the fastest-growing economy”. She also added that all sectors contribute significantly to India’s economic activities, maintaining the country’s growth momentum. Around 13.5 crore people have come out of ‘multi-dimensional’ poverty in the last five years, she said.
The discussion was concluded after Ms. Sitharaman’s speech and the House was adjourned for the day.
Published - December 07, 2023 10:43 pm IST
