Issues, including power failure at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium last week thereby denying athletes to qualify for forthcoming Rio Olympics, law to punish celebrities endorsing brands which dupe consumers, removing terrorist tag from freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in text books and changes in Right to Information Act to allow officers to act without fear figured prominently in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Cutting across party lines, the members associated themselves with the power failure issue besides scrapping terrorist tag to Bhagat Singh and safety rules to prevent fire like the one which gutted the National Museum of Natural History.
Raising the issue of power failure, former Indian hockey captain and BJD leader Dilip Tirkey said the power failure robbed two athletes from his State of Odisha from qualifying for Olympics. He demanded a probe and action against erring officials for the fiasco.
Naresh Agrawal (SP) demanded a law to deal with the issue of celebrities endorsing brands and products which do not live up to expectations and ultimately leave the consumers cheated. Quoting an example, he said Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had to face the opposition of people in Noida for endorsing a real estate company. He also cautioned former cricketer and TV personality Navjot Sidhu who took oath as member on Thursday to refrain from such practice.
Another demand made in the Zero Hour, which found support of members from all sides, was to issue strict instructions to CPWD and other agencies incharge of buildings to put in place appropriate fire safety arrangements and remove encroachments to prevent accidents. The issue was raised by Shiv Sena member Anil Desai.
JD(U) member KC Tyagi raised the issue of Bhagat Singh and urged the Government to immediately remove him being referred as terrorist in textbooks of Delhi University. Tyagi also called for setting up a national heritage site at places where Bhagat Singh and his colleagues threw bombs in Parliament during British regime.
Several MPs also expressed concern over misuse of RTI thereby officials shying away from taking initiative.