Lok Sabha passes Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act Bill

New Delhi, July 24: The Lok Sabha Wednesday passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, popularly known as the Anti-Terrorism Bill. Introducing the bill in the lower house, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the amendments to the bill will ensure anti-terror laws are not misused. "There's a need for a provision in the UAPA bill to designate a person suspected to have terror links as a terrorist. It is necessary to root out terror," Shah said in the Lok Sabha.

As Congress MPs staged a walkout from the lower house demanding to send the bill to the Standing Committee for reconsideration, the House Speaker Om Birla directed the House to cast their vote.

The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which was passed on Monday evening in the Lok Sabha will be taken up for discussion in the Rajya Sabha today. The Bill came under fire as several Opposition parties insisted that the amendments to the law were "dangerous" to the fundamental rights of the citizens and a "threat to the Constitution and the Parliament". The Bill will be moved by the Minister of State (MoS) for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr Jitendra Singh.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be introducing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Upper House and Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, the Lower House had cleared the Appropriation and Finance Bill, the Modi 2.0-government's maiden budget. On Donald Trump's claim that Narendra Modi asked him to act as a mediator with Pakistan on Kashmir issue, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar denied that Prime Minister made the request and reiterated that all outstanding issues between India and Pakistan can be discussed only bilaterally.