Cutting across party lines, members on Tuesday in the Rajya Sabha backed issues like better pension to ex-servicemen, bringing back Kohinoor to India and shortage of judges. Rising prices of pulses and sugar, higher allocation of rice for Odisha and custodial deaths were the other issues which came up.
Raising the issue of pension for retired soldiers, AU Singh Deo(BJD) said while MPs and MlAs were entitled for pension even after serving a stint of two or three
years, there was no relaxation of even a day for jawan and he has to complete 15 years of service for
pension entitlement. He also asked the Government to accord more respect to men in uniform.
The entire House supported Deo’s appeal and Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said “is it fair” to insist that the jawan complete mandatory tenure while MPs earn the pension after two years. He then went on to say “I am posing this question” and asked the Government to convey sentiments of the members to the Defence Minister.
The demand for getting back the Kohinoor diamond from Britain and giving it to the Jagannath Temple in Puri, as willed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was raised by Deo’s party colleague Bhupinder Singh. The BJD member’s plea was supported by all Elders and Kurien remarked “every member will be happy if Kohinoor is brought back.”
Pl Punia (Congress) raised the issue of shortage of judges in courts and said this was impacting speedy delivery of justice. Demanding the scrapping of collegiums system of appointing judges, he called for setting up an all India Judicial Service with reservation to SC, ST and OBCs at all levels.
Backing his plea, Sharad Yadav(JD-U) referred to Chief Justice TS Thakur making an emotional appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi some time back on the issue of shortage of judges.
Husain Dalwai (Congress) raised the issue of custodial deaths in different parts of the country while Dilip Kumar Tirkey (BJD) demanded higher rice allocation to Odisha under the Food Security Act. Pramod Tiwari(Congress) raised the issue of rising prices of pulses and sugar.