Issues including people getting killed due to celebratory firing during wedding processions, Special Protection Group (SPG)’s alleged rude behaviour with MPs, sports infrastructure in proposed smart cities and domestic violence against women figured in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The entire house allied with Prabhat Jha (BJP) when he raised the issue of rising incidents of deaths in celebratory firing and demanded a law to ban carrying of firearms on such occasions.
Referring to a series of incidents in the recent past, Jha said on a single day in April, 40 cases were reported from different parts of the country. He said in most of the cases the killings were not intentional. Agreeing with the BJP member, SP leader Ramgopal Yadav said in some cases the firing was intentional.
Congress objected to SPG behaving rudely with MPs after one of its members T Subarami Reddy raised the issue and quoted an incident where he faced such behavior in Visakhapatnam recently during the Prime Minister’s official function. The main Opposition party demanded a response from the Government on the issue and Anand Sharma said it concerned the dignity of MPs.
The issue of convictions under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act saw sharp exchanges between Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju and Congress MPs. They claimed the Minister had used improper language while replying to queries.
When some Congress MPs argued with Chairman Hamid Ansari, he sternly asked them to let the house function. Regarding domestic violence, he said “we have a societal problem, which cuts across all sections,” and urged the members to have a full-fledged discussion on it.
Sports Minister Sarbanand Sonowal informed the House that his Ministry has urged the Urban Development Minister to include provisions like sports infrastructure while forming up the guidelines of smart cities. The issue was raised by Anubhav Mohanty(BJD) who urged the government to make sports facilities mandatory for 20 smart cities.
His party leader and former Indian hockey captain Dilip Tirkey asked the Government to provide for playgrounds as most students were now not inclined to take to sports leading to disease like diabetes.