Parliament roundup: The Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022 passed and more

New Delhi, Aug 04: On the 14th day of the Monsoon Session, the Lok Sabha proceedings were first adjourned until 2 p.m. and then adjourned for the rest of the day as protesting members of the Opposition continued to raise slogans against the "use of ED" by the government.

Rajya Sabha, first adjourned till noon due to protests on the same issue, held the Question Hour amidst loud sloganeering before being adjourned again till 2 p.m. Protests and sloganeering continued as it took up the Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022 for consideration and passing. The Bill was passed amid chaos just before the House was adjourned for the day.

Here's how the day unfolded :

Parliament gives nod to Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022

Rajya Sabha passed The Family Courts (Amendment) Bill that seeks to to grant statutory cover to family courts set up in Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland.

The Family Courts Act was enacted in 1984 for the establishment of family courts by States to deal with disputes related to family and marriage. Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju introduced the Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022, as he urged State governments to set up family courts in all districts.

The bill also seeks to insert a new section 3A to retrospectively validate all actions under the actions taken by the governments of Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland and the family courts of these states.

Two family courts were established in Nagaland in 2008 and three in Himachal Pradesh in 2019 through notifications issued by the respective state governments.

The issue of lack of jurisdiction of the family courts in Himachal Pradesh came to the fore during proceedings of the Himachal Pradesh High Court last year. As soon as the bill was cleared, Deputy Chairman Harivansh adjourned the House for the day.

14 IAS officers from 12 state cadres currently on deputation in PMO: Govt

As many as 14 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers from 12 state cadres are currently on deputation in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Two officers each are from Gujarat and Bihar cadres and one each from Uttarakhand, Telangana, Sikkim, Manipur, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories) cadre, according to a written reply given by Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh.

To a question seeking a number of officers appointed through lateral entry in the PMO, he said lateral recruitment provides for the appointment of persons for specific assignments in the government of India, keeping in view their specialized knowledge and expertise in the domain area.

Since 2014, a total of about 548 kms of metro rail network has been built/operationalized in the country

The Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Kaushal Kishore in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today informed that before 2014 (i.e. till December, 2013), a total of about 229 kms of metro rail network was operational in the cities of Delhi & NCR (194 kms), Kolkata (28 kms) and Bangalore (7 kms).

Since 2014, a total of about 548 kms of metro rail network has been built/operationalized in the country. The details of metro rail projects built/operationalized since 2014, along with the funds released by Government of India for these projects, city-wise, are given in Annexure I.

The details of metro rail network being built/under construction across the country, along with the funds allocated/sanctioned cost, city-wise, are given in Annexure II.

Urban transport, which is an integral part of urban development, is a state subject. Hence, respective State/Union Territory (UT) Governments are responsible for initiating, developing and funding urban transport infrastructure including metro rail projects. As per Metro Rail Policy, 2017, the Central Government considers financial assistance for metro rail proposals in cities or urban agglomerates based on the feasibility of the proposal and availability of resources, as and when posed by the concerned State/Union Territory (UT) Government.

E-surveillance systems installed at tiger reserves

E-surveillance system is established in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (Uttarakhand), Kaziranga Tiger Reserve (Assam) and Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) with funding support from ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger (CSS-PT) and Grants-in-Aid to National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

Establishment of e-surveillance is assisted by the Central Government based on the site specific need based proposals from States.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

Rajya Sabha functions disruption-free after 12 sittings

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday functioned for the full sitting free of any disruptions, which marked the previous 12 sittings of the current monsoon session.

The Congress members, however, staged a walkout during the end of the sitting raising an issue not connected with the business in progress, when Sports Minister Anurag Thakur was replying to the marathon debate on the National Anti-Doping Bill.

For the first time, Zero Hour was taken up with 17 members raising issues of public importance, officials said.