Issues like having a permanent voter list to provide relief to those who find their names missing from the list on the voting day and plagiarism in Indian universities figured in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday with the entire house associating. However, a BJP member's remarks about Indian women while favouring a comfortable dress code for women in uniform saw protest by some women MPs and he apologised and retracted it.
Raising the dress code issue, D P Vats urged various ministries to have work friendly dress for women in uniform as the present pattern of summer uniform with the shirt tucked in under the belt and trousers is inconvenient for women in police and military, especially during pregnancy and afterwards. He then referred to the physique of Indian women leading to protest by some women MPs claiming it was objectionable.
Vats said the best example of dress code is women officers of Parliament security and Special Protection Group(SPG)donning safari suits thereby making it comfortable and urged other departments to follow suit by allowing safari suits or salwar kameez. He also said the armed forces are permitting even saree for the Army, Navy and Air Force, but saree is not convenient for parade and other duties.
Highlighting plight of voters who find their names missing on polling day, P L Punia(Congress)called for a permanent voters' list to address the issue. He said a large number of eligible voters find their names missing or deleted from voters' list. Also, separate voters' list for different elections like gram panchayat, state legislative assembly and Lok Sabha are there, he added. The entire House cutting across party lines backed the suggestion.
Drawing the attention of the house to the malaise of plagiarism, K J Alphons(BJP) said there should be zero tolerance towards this practice as it brings a bad name to India. If faculty members indulge in plagiarism they should be dismissed from service and a subject and 'Research Integrity', should be added in the curriculum of institutions, he said.
Backing his contention with figures, Alphons said in In 2018, 127 published articles in international journals had to be retracted because they were found to be plagiarised. ‘One in every three articles submitted by Indian authors is returned today because of plagiarism,’ he said, adding that a software can run through the thesis and can tell if the article is plagiarised. Members from nearly all parties including ruling and opposition associated themselves with him
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh made a demand for abandoning the interlinking of rivers, claiming it will have a disastrous environmental impact, but members from AIADMK and DMK objected to his views.
Mahesh Poddar (BJP) demanded strict laws to check cattle smuggling for slaughtering for beef and leather industry.
Shiv Pratap Shukla(BJP) drew the attention of the House towards need to de-silt rivers to check floods. He also suggested rivers should be inter-linked as it would solve the problem of flooding.
Another senior Congress MP Motilal Vora expressed concern over ‘reduction’ in salaries of ISRO scientists. He said the central government's decision in this regard would affect 16,000 scientists and urged the ruling combine to review the decision and take it back.
