Government pushes key Bills in LS, RS amid Opposition protests

Both Houses continued to witness protests by opposition members on issues like Pegasus, fuel prices and the farmer agitation

Amid opposition protests, Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed two Bills, including the Essential Defence Services Bill that empowers the government to ban strikes, agitations and lockouts in defence establishments.

The other Bill that was passed without any significant discussion was the Tribunals Reforms Bill that seeks to abolish nine appellate tribunals, including the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), a move that faced opposition from the film industry.

Both Houses continued to witness protests by opposition members on issues ranging from the Pegasus revelations of alleged snooping, rising fuel prices and the farmer agitation.

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The Rajya Sabha passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill that seeks to provide for a pre-packaged insolvency resolution mechanism for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) after a brief discussion.

Regional outfits such as BJD, TRS, YSRCP, TDP and NDA partner AIADMK participated in the discussion on the Bill. This Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week.

Opposition parties continued to raise slogans demanding a discussion on the Pegasus revelations, which Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has already termed as a “non-issue”.

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In the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government was ready to respond to any queries raised by members on the Tribunals Reforms Bill even as opposition members raised slogans against the government in the well of the House.

In brief remarks on the Essential Defence Services Bill, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury termed the draft legislation as “draconian”.

“There are 41 Ordnance Factories in India. The government is trying to convert this into separate boards and finally, it is an indirect way of privatisation of ordnance factories in our country and the sole purpose of this Bill is to ban strikes,” RSP member N K Premachandran said opposing the Bill.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the Bill has been brought before the House after consultations with the employees' unions of ordnance factories.

The Bill seeks to replace an ordinance promulgated by the government on June 30.