Parliament roundup: Govt withdraws Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 & more

New Delhi, Aug 03: The Opposition MPs created uproar in both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha over various issues including "misuse of Central agencies" by the Centre on Wednesday.

The Congress and the Shiv Sena tried to raise the issue of alleged misuse of central investigating agencies by the government in the Rajya Sabha but Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu disallowed them from doing so. Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader M Mallikarjun Kharge and his colleague Deepender Singh Hooda, Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi and AAP's Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha gave notices under rule 267 but they were not admitted.

Shortly before the adjournment, the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was introduced in the Lower House. The Bill seeks to provide regulatory framework for carbon Trading in India, effective implementation and enforcement of the "Energy Conservation Act" and to encourage penetration of renewables in energy mix.

Here are the highlights of the day:

Govt withdraws Personal Data Protection Bill 2019
The government on Wednesday withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill from Lok Sabha and said it will come out with a "set of fresh legislations" that will fit into the comprehensive legal framework. "The government will bring a set of new legislation for a comprehensive legal framework for the digital economy," IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who moved for the withdrawal of the Bill in the House, told PTI.

The government would hold a wide public consultation before putting the new legislation to Parliament, sources said. According to sources, the Bill could be replaced by more than one bill, dealing with privacy and cyber security and the government may bring the new set of bills in the Winter Session of Parliament.

The Bill seeks to provide for the protection of personal data of individuals and establishes a Data Protection Authority for the same.

The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill 2022 Bill Passed
The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2022 is passed in Lok Sabha today. The bill seeks to create the Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya and will generate appropriate human resources to meet the needs of the growing infrastructure of the country, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday.

Setting the stage for a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the bill which aims to build a global standard multi-modal, multi-sectoral academic ecosystem, Pradhan, said the plan is to unify different departments to create a new infrastructure where various transport sector elements -- railway, road, waterways, aviation and port along with IT -- will coordinate with each other on the platform of Gati Shakti Mission.

National Anti-Doping Bill gets parliament nod
Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill which seeks to provide a statutory framework for the functioning of the National Anti-Doping Agency and the National Dope Testing Laboratory. The National Anti-Doping Bill, 2022 was passed by a voice vote in Rajya Sabha.

It was cleared by Lok Sabha last week along with certain official amendments. Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Anurag Thakur while responding to debate on the bill said that currently India can carry out only about 6,000 tests a year, and the law would help in increasing the testing capacity significantly. He said for holding any large international championship, the number of tests required could be as high as 10,000 a month.

Lok Sabha passes Gati Shakti bill
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a bill that seeks to convert the National Rail and Transportation University, a deemed-to-be-university, into Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, an autonomous central university. The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, which also seeks to expand the scope of the University from beyond the railways to cover the entire transport sector to support the ambitious growth and modernisation in the field, was passed by a voice vote after a brief discussion. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan responded to the debate.

Public grievance redressal time reduced from 45 to 30 days: Union Minister Jitendra Singh
The government has undertaken comprehensive reforms for timely grievance redressal, including reduction in timelines from 45 to 30 days, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday. The grievances of urgent nature shall be redressed on priority basis, he said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

Feedback call centre to seek citizen satisfaction has been operationalised, said Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel. "Reduced timelines for resolution of grievances received on CPGRAMS from 45 days to 30 days," he said mentioning the reforms. The Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System or CPGRAMS -- a portal -- allows citizens to register complaints.

Rs 2.54 lakh crore spent on central govt pensioners during 2021-22
Over Rs 2.54 lakh crore was spent on nearly 70 lakh central government pensioners during 2021-22, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday. There were 69,76,240 pensioners and family pensioners - 11,28,441 civil pensioners, 36,03,609 defence pensioners (including armed forces pensioners), 4,32,968 telecom pensioners, 14,82,223 railway pensioners and 3,28,999 postal pensioners, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said in a written reply. Total expenditure incurred on these pensioners was Rs 2,54,284.4 crore during the financial year 2021-22, he said.

Govt wants to end problem of long queues at toll plazas: Gadkari
The government is looking at new technologies to replace toll plazas in the country and the new system will be introduced in the next six months, Transport minister Nitin Gadkari informed Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour in the upper house, the minister said toll plazas have created many problems like traffic snarls and long queues, which the government wants to end. He was responding to questions from members on the issue of toll plazas within 60 km in the same direction which is not as per law.

The government, he said, is now searching for two options - satellite based toll system where the GPS will be there in a car and the toll will be directly subtracted from the passenger's bank account and the other option is through number plates.

No discrimination in selection process in armed forces
The selection process in the armed forces is open to all citizens without any discrimination on the basis of caste, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The recruitment in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles is not made on the basis of caste, Rai added while responding to the query of YSRCP MP V Vijay Sai Reddy.

However, Rai categorized, reservation is provided for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Class (OBC) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category in accordance with the extant policy of the government. "Vacancies reserved for SC category are filled up from the candidates belonging to SC category only," said Rai.

No proposal to constitute independent regulator for e-commerce, govt informs Parliament
The central government has no proposal under consideration for constituting an independent regulating authority for e-commerce platforms, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash informed Lok Sabha on Wednesday. This was in reply to a question on whether the government proposes to constitute an independent regulator for e-commerce platforms.

Currently, the e-commerce sector is governed by a comprehensive legal and policy framework including Consumer Protection Act, 2019; Competition Act, 2002; Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017; Information Technology Act, 2000; Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007; Companies Act, 2013; Copyright Act, 1957 etc. FDI Policy and Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 contain provisions related to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).