Parliament Monsoon Session: Centre Withdraws Data Protection Bill; Both Houses Adjourned Till Tomorrow

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed Parliament on Wednesday that the Data Protection Bill, 2021, had been withdrawn by the Centre. The bill had proposed access of government agencies to personal data without consent.

Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 4 pm amid protests by opposition members over various issues, including raids at the premises of the National Herald newspaper in connection with a money laundering probe. As the House discussed the Central University (Amendment) Bill, 2022, opposition MPs kept shouting slogans against the government. TMC’s Sougata Ray raised the issue of a team of West Bengal police allegedly not being allowed to conduct a search operation at a property of a man associated with one of the three Jharkhand MLAs arrested in a cash seizure case despite having a court warrant.

The Congress on Wednesday alleged that the Enforcement Directorate has become a “tool” in the hands of the BJP-led Centre to “destroy” the Opposition parties. Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also said that the party was not being allowed to raise the issue of alleged “misuse” of the ED by the Centre in Parliament.

Chowdhury’s remarks came a day after the ED raided the head office of the Congress party-owned National Herald newspaper here and other locations as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation. He said Congress leaders in Lok Sabha had given three adjournment motion notices to raise the issue of alleged “misuse” of the ED.

“The ruling party is not allowing us to raise this issue. Why is the government scared of us putting our point in Parliament,” he told reporters. Chowdhury had tried to raise the issue of investigation into the National Herald newspaper in Lok Sabha, but was disallowed by the chair.

Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm amid protests by Opposition members over various issues, including raids at the premises of National Herald newspaper in connection with a money laundering investigation. Chowdhury alleged that ED was being used to “tarnish” the image of the Congress and of the newspaper that played a key role in the national movement.

Here are the updates on parliament monsoon session:

• GATI SHAKTI BILL: Lok Sabha passed a bill that seeks to convert the National Rail and Transportation University, a deemed-to-be-university, into Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, an autonomous central university. The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, which also seeks to expand the scope of the university from beyond the railways to cover the entire transport sector to support the ambitious growth and modernisation in the field, was passed by a voice vote after a brief discussion.

• After a four-hour discussion, Rajya Sabha passed the National Anti-Doping Bill unanimously by voice vote with all the opposition and treasury benches positively taking part. Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned till tomorrow.

• FATHER OF TOLL TAX: Union minister Nitin Gadkari called himself the “father of toll tax” on expressways in the country as he built the first such road in Maharashtra during his stint as the state minister in the late 1990s. The senior minister made the remark while responding to supplementary queries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, where members expressed concerns over the setting up of toll plazas on expressways inside city limits due to which the local population had to pay toll even when commuting within the city. The road transport minister, who is often praised even by opposition members for the performance of his ministry, assured the members that the issue will be rectified and claimed the problem had arisen under the UPA rule.

• DATA PROTECTION BILL: The Centre withdrew the Data Protection Bill from the Lok Sabha. The bill was introduced on December 11, 2019 and referred to the joint committee of the Houses for examination and the report of the committee was presented to Lok Sabha on December 16, 2021. The bill, withdrawn by IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, aimed to provide protection of digital privacy to individuals relating to their personal data, specify the flow and usage of data, and create a relationship of trust between persons and entities processing the data. MoS Chandrasekhar tweeted about the development, saying: “JCP report on Personal Data protection bill had identified many issues that were relevant but beyond scope of modern Digital Privacy law. Privacy is fundamental right of Indian citizens& a trillion-dollar digital economy requires Global std Cyber laws.”

• TOURISM IN J&K: MoS Rai told Rajya Sabha that an estimated 1.06 crore tourists have visited Jammu and Kashmir from January to July 3 this year. He also said close to 30,000 people have been recruited in the public sector in Jammu and Kashmir since 2019. He, however, did not specify if the number of tourists included pilgrims visiting Vaishno Devi temple and Amarnath Cave. He said 75 offbeat destinations had been identified for tourism across J&K.

• CENTRAL UNIVERSITIES BILL PASSED IN LS: Lok Sabha passed the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2022, amending the Central Universities Act, 2009, which provides for establishing central universities in various states.

• PENSION EXPENDITURE: Over Rs 2.54 lakh crore was spent on nearly 70 lakh central government pensioners during 2021-22, Lok Sabha was informed. There were 69,76,240 pensioners and family pensioners 11,28,441 civil pensioners, 36,03,609 defence pensioners (including armed forces pensioners), 4,32,968 telecom pensioners, 14,82,223 railway pensioners and 3,28,999 postal pensioners, MoS Jitendra Singh said in a written reply.

• ARRESTS UNDER UAPA: A total of 4,690 people were arrested under the anti-terror law UAPA between 2018 and 2020 but just 149 were convicted, MoS Rai said. He further said 1,321 people were arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in 2020 while 80 were convicted in that year. In 2019, 1,948 people were arrested and 34 convicted, and in 2018, 1,421 people were arrested while 35 convicted, he said replying to a written question in Rajya Sabha. The minister said the highest number of people arrested under the UAPA between 2018 and 2020 was in Uttar Pradesh – 1,338, followed by Manipur – 943 and Jammu and Kashmir – 750.

• NHAI DEBT: The total outstanding debt of National Highways Authority of India stood at around Rs 3.49 lakh crore as of March 31, Parliament was informed. In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Gadkari said the fund required by NHAI for debt servicing in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 will be Rs 31,282 crore, Rs 31,909 crore and Rs 30,552 crore.

• NORTHEASTERN INSURGENCY: Rajya Sabha was informed that there had been a 74 per cent reduction in insurgency incidents and 89 per cent decline in civilian deaths in the Northeast in 2021 as compared to 2014. MoS Rai said since 2014 till July 15, 2022, a total of 6,070 cadres of different insurgent groups in the Northeast surrendered with 1,404 arms.

• 348 MOBILE APPS BLOCKED: The government has blocked 348 mobile applications identified by the home ministry for transmitting users’ information in an unauthorised manner to servers located outside the country, Parliament was informed. MoS Chandrasekhar, in a written reply to Lok Sabha, said the apps were developed by various countries, including China.

• ATTACKS ON GURDWARAS IN AFGHANISTAN: Former cricketer and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh raised the issue of attacks on gurdwaras and Sikhs in Afghanistan, and expressed concerns over a “sharp decline” in Sikh population there. While raising this issue during the Zero Hour, Singh wondered why only Sikhs were being attacked. “I have stood up to speak on the attacks on Sikhs and gurdwaras in Afghanistan. This is not only a matter which has hurt sentiments of Sikhs living across the world, it is also an attack on identity of being a Sikh… why such attacks on us only… why are we being targeted?” he asked. The AAP member pointed out that Sikh and Hindu populations had sharply declined in Afghanistan over the past few decades.

• GRIEVANCE REDRESS TIME REDUCED: Union minister Jitendra Singh said the government had undertaken comprehensive reforms for timely grievance redressal, including reduction in timelines from 45 to 30 days. The grievances of urgent nature shall be redressed on priority basis, he said in a written reply to Lok Sabha. He further said feedback call centre to seek citizen satisfaction has been operationalised. The Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System or CPGRAMS – a portal – allows citizens to register complaints.

• WOMEN IN CAPF: Over 34,000 women were currently serving in various central armed police forces like CRPF, BSF and CISF, Rajya Sabha was informed. Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said in January 2016, it was decided to reserve 33 per cent posts at constable level to be filled up by women in CRPF and CISF to begin with and 14 to 15 per cent posts at constable level in border guarding forces BSF, SSB and ITBP. Rai said 9,454 women were serving in CRPF, 7,391 women in BSF, 9,320 in CISF, 2,518 in ITBP, 3,610 in SSB and 1,858 in Assam Rifles. The combined strength is around 10 lakh.

• GOVT LOOKING TO REPLACE TOLL PLAZAS: Transport minister Nitin Gadkari informed Rajya Sabha that the government was looking at new technologies to replace toll plazas in the country and the new system will be introduced in the next six months. Replying to supplementaries during the question hour in the upper house, the minister said toll plazas had caused problems like traffic snarls and long queues, which the government wanted to end. He said the government was now searching for two options: satellite-based toll system, where the GPS will be there in a car and the toll will be directly subtracted from the passenger’s bank account, and the other option is through number plates. He was responding to questions on the issue of toll plazas within 60 km in the same direction, which is not as per law.

• AADHAAR DATA: Authentication of voters in electoral rolls using the Aadhaar identity platform is provided as per relevant provisions of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, Parliament was informed. Minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar, in a written reply to Lok Sabha, said data within the voter ID database cannot interact with data across databases linked to Aadhaar thereof. In response to a question on whether data within the voter ID database can interact with data across databases linked to Aadhaar thereof, Chandrasekhar said, “No Sir.” Asked if the government has investigated potential misuse of Aadhaar data for any purpose and the profiling, Chandrasekhar said no such incidence has come to the notice of the Unique Identification Authority of India.

• Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 4 pm amid protests by opposition members over various issues, including raids at the premises of the National Herald newspaper in connection with a money laundering probe. As the House discussed the Central University (Amendment) Bill, 2022, opposition MPs kept shouting slogans against the government. TMC’s Sougata Ray raised the issue of a team of West Bengal police allegedly not being allowed to conduct a search operation at a property of a man associated with one of the three Jharkhand MLAs arrested in a cash seizure case despite having a court warrant.

• GATISHAKTI UNIVERSITY: Centre proposes out ‘Gatishakti University’ for technicality, engineering & finance education of railways, metro, highways, ports. “The university will focus on five areas including transport-based courses, skill development, applied research, technology development, and transport economics,” said Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

• DISASTER ASSISTANCE: The Centre has released Rs 648.80 crore in 2022-23 as disaster assistance to Assam where 197 people have lost their lives due to floods and landslides this year. Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in Rajya Sabha that during the south-west monsoon of 2022, floods and landslides reported to have caused extensive damage in various districts in Assam.

• SUICIDES IN CAPF: As many as 657 personnel belonging to the Central Armed Police Forces like the CRPF and BSF died by suicide in the past five years, Union Minister Nityanand Rai said on Wednesday. The minister of state for home said the Rajya Sabha that 153 personnel died by suicide in 2021, 149 in 2020, 133 in 2019, 97 in 2018 and 125 in 2017.

• DOPING BILL: The National Anti Doping Bill, 2022 was introduced in Rajya Sabha for consideration and passing. “It intends to building institutional capabilities in anti-doping and enabling hosting of major sports events, protecting rights of sportspersons, time-bound justice to athletes, enhancing cooperation among agencies in fighting doping,” Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur said.

• Congress president Sonia Gandhi was seen asking party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to speak on certain issues. Congress members and DMK leader TR Baalu also urged Speaker Om Birla to allow Chowdhury to speak but the permission was not granted. Congress members also trooped into the Well of the House while some DMK members were seen protesting, standing at their seats.

• Lok Sabha proceedings on Wednesday were adjourned till noon amid protests by Opposition members over various issues. As soon as the House met, the Opposition members, including from the Congress, sought to raise certain issues and started shouting slogans.

• AAP MP Ragha Chadha on Wednesday raised the issue of GST saying the central govt has put tax on “bhakti” too. “Mughal used to take this jaziya tax. The central govt has put 12% GST on accomodation centres near harmander sahib. This is hurtful to our devotion. Govt should repeal this decision. We will raise this issue on every platform until govt rolls back this decision,” he said.

• Congress MP Pramod Tiwari on Wednesday gave zero-hour notice in the Rajya Sabha on the issue of the ‘surge in Indian money held in Swiss banks’. Tiwari said, “It is a matter of grave concern that other foreign banks, including Swiss Bank funds are being diverted to more institutions in an uncontrollable manner, increasing the risks of black money.”

• MPs take out Tiranga bike rally from Red Fort to the Parliament.

• AAP MP Sanjay Singh gives suspension of business notice in Rajya Sabha over “demolition of a temple in Gujarat’s Navsari”.

• AAP MP Raghav Chadha gives suspension of business notice in Rajya Sabha to discuss the imposition of 12% GST on ‘Sarais’ around Shri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) Amritsar.

• Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman responded to Derek O’Brien on Twitter saying he and other Trinamool MPs walked out the moment she mentioned ‘West Bengal’ and that paneer had VAT there ever before GST.

• TMC MP Derek O’Brien on Tuesday took to Twitter and called out Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on ‘evading’ questions on price rise and GST. “WE HAD RAISED 6 SPECIFIC ISSUES. She evaded all. NO RESPONSE in #Parliament

Maybe I will get luckier on @Twitter,” his tweet said.

• PRIVATISATION OF PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS: The government is not planning to introduce any bill to make amendments to facilitate the privatisation of public sector banks in the ongoing monsoon session, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. As per list of business for monsoon session 2022 of the Parliament, no such bill has been listed for introduction, consideration and passing, minister of state for finance Bhagwat K Karad said in a written reply.

• Jayant Chaudhary of the RLD pointed out that the cost of doing farming has gone up significantly over the past few years.

• Sudhanshu Trivedi of the BJP said India’s current inflation is around 7 per cent, which is one of the lowest in the world. “The rate of inflation of India in August is 7.01 per cent,” he said, adding that developed countries like Italy have an inflation rate of 7.9 per cent, Germany 7.5 per cent, Canada 8.1 per cent, the USA 9.1 per cent and the UK 9.4 per cent.

• A total of 14,077 dengue cases have been reported in the country till June this year against 13,580 cases in the corresponding period of 2021, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar informed Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. In 2021, a total of 2,05,243 cases of dengue were reported in India, she said in a written reply, adding that the number of cases stood at 44,585 in 2020 and 1,93,245 in 2019.

• WILDLIFE PROTECTION BILL PASSED: Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill-2021, with Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav asserting that development and environment protection can go hand in hand and are not in conflict with each other. The bill was passed by voice vote after several amendments moved by opposition members were rejected by the House.

• BJP MP Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ Tuesday made a strong pitch in the Lok Sabha for the inclusion of Bhojpuri in the list of official languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. In his maiden speech in the Lok Sabha, Yadav said Bhojpuri was spoken in 16 countries and the ‘Geet Gawai’ tradition has been recognised by the UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage at the request of Mauritius.

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