Parliament roundup: GST, inflation protests stall proceedings for 2nd consecutive day

New Delhi, July 19: The second day of the monsoon session was marked by disruptions as well. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been adjourned amid continued sloganeering over inflation and price hike, among others, by Opposition MPs.

Here's how the day unfolded:

Cong leaders protest against rising prices of commodities LPG price hike
The Congress on Tuesday held a protest over the issue of price rise in Parliament complex here, a day after the Goods and Services Tax on packaged food items such as milk and curd came into force.

Besides Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, some opposition MPs including Supriya Sule of the NCP, Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi party and Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena were present during the protest which was held in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue in Parliament complex.

Raising slogans against the government, the Congress members demanded a rollback in prices of LPG.

32 bills indicated by various departments for Monsoon session, 14 ready: Govt
The government said 32 bills have been indicated by various departments for presentation in two Houses of which 14 are ready, even as it asserted that it wants discussions on all of them in a democratic way. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that some of these 32 bills have already been discussed by standing committees of Parliament. "Thirty two bills have been indicated by various departments for being presented in this session of Parliament, of which 14 bills are ready, but we will not pass the bills without discussion," he said.

3.92 lakh Indians renounced citizenship in last three years
Over 3.92 lakh Indians gave up their citizenship in the last three years and 1.70 lakh of them, the highest, took up American citizenship, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said that according to details provided by the Ministry of External Affairs, individuals renounced Indian citizenship for reasons personal to them and took citizenship in over 120 countries. A total of 3,92,643 Indians gave up their citizenship in 2019, 2020 and 2021, he said in a written reply to a question.

Of these, 1,70,795 people took up American citizenship, 64,071 took up citizenship in Canada, 58,391 in Australia, 35,435 in the United Kingdom, 12,131 in Italy, 8,882 in New Zealand, 7,046 in Singapore, 6,690 in Germany, 3,754 in Sweden and 48 in Pakistan, among others.

India witnessed 36.29 lakh cyber security incidents since 2019 till Jun this year: Govt
A whopping 36.29 lakh cyber security incidents were observed in the country since 2019 till last month and the government has taken a number of steps to check such designs, Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra said on Tuesday. "As per information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total of 3,94,499, 11,58,208, 14,02,809 and 67,4021 cyber security incidents were observed during 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 (upto June), respectively," he said in Lok Sabha while replying to a written question.

Government does not maintain data of arrested journalists, says MHA

Union Minister for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai on Tuesday informed in a written reply in Loksabha that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not maintain any specific data with respect to the arrest of journalists.

His remarks came after Trinamool Congress MP Mala Roy had asked about the total number of journalists arrested in the country since 2019 along with the details of all the individual charges against these journalists.