"They are not thinking about ensuring justice to the Muslim sisters. They are doing injustice the same way they did in the Shah-Bano case," Kumar told reporters here in Parliament.
Condemning the Congress's demand to refer the bill to the Select Committee, Kumar said: "Everyday they bring a new excuse and their demand to refer the bill to the Select Committee is just a trick to misguide all. I condemn this.
"The Congress should learn from history and allow the Triple Talaq Bill to pass."
The BJP leader's remarks came as the deadlock over the bill in the Rajya Sabha continued on Thursday with the government rejecting the opposition's insistence on sending the bill to the Select Committee for detailed scrutiny.
The government has decided to put the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, which seeks to criminalise instant divorce by uttering talaq thrice, for consideration on Friday -- the last day of the winter session.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 was passed by a voice vote after rejecting a resolution moved by Revolutionary Socialist Party member N.K. Premachandran that the legislation be circulated for public opinion.
Various amendments moved by opposition members, including Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM) and Premachandran, were negatived in divisions.
The government's determination to get the Bill passed could be gauged from the fact that it was introduced in the morning and taken up for consideration in the afternoon by suspending relevant rules and then passed in the evening by sitting late beyond the scheduled close of the House.
Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who introduced the bill and later piloted it in the Lok Sabha, said history was being created today.
He said the issue was not of religion or faith but of "gender justice and gender equality" and appealed to all the parties to rise above political considerations and politics of votebank. "Women are seeing that justice will be done to them. Let us speak in one voice that we are for gender justice and gender equity and pass the Bill unanimously," Prasad said, winding up the discussion.
He said instances of instant triple talaq continue despite the Supreme Court ruling it as unconstitutional in August this year. The bill seeks to declare pronouncement of talaq-e-biddat (three pronouncements of talaq at one go) by Muslim husbands void and illegal in view of the Supreme Court verdict.
Prasad said while Justice Rohington Nariman and U.U. Lalit held in their judgment in August that instant divorce was unconstitutional and the government should look at bringing a law, Justice Kurian Joseph had observed that what is a sin in Islamic laws cannot be legal.
The Minister saw no justification in the demand for referring the Bill to a standing committee saying the affected Muslim women were crying for justice and were fully backing it. He said there was contradiction in members wanting it to be referred to a standing committee and some arguing why it was not brought earlier.
The Bill makes the act of pronouncing talaq-e-biddat punishable offence. There is provision for subsistence allowance from the husband for the livelihood and daily supporting needs of the wife as also of the dependent children. The wife would also be entitled to the custody of minor children.
Intervening in the debate, Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar said time was now ripe for the passage of the legislation in the interest of Muslim women. He recalled an instance of a British journalist interviewing the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru after the passage of the Hindu code Bill when she asked when would the government introduce reforms in Muslim laws.
Nehru was not opposed to reforms of Muslim personal laws but merely said the time was not opportune then, Akbar said. "That time has come now."
Though Opposition members, including from the Congress, supported the legislation, they wanted it to be referred to a parliamentary committee so that several lacunae can be removed and the provisions strengthened in favour of Muslim women. The law must ensure that subsistence allowance and maintenance to the women and the children was not stopped, they felt.
Some felt that the BJP government was in a haste to pass the Bill not because of its concern for Muslim women but because it sees this as a first step towards bringing in a uniform civil code. They wanted the measure to be given up immediately.
During the debate, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi accused the Congress of appeasing Muslims and said there is a need for codification of Muslim personal laws in the country.
"They (Congress) always did appeasement politics for which the country has paid for 30 years and today we have this chance. If we lose this chance today we will not have another chance.," she said.
"Codification of Islamic law is needed in this country. No one knows what is Sharia, Talaq-e-Biddat... No one knows the difference," she added.
The facility, to track status of bills, is available to the vendors or contractors of goods and services sector in Indian Railways, the Railways Ministry said in a statement.
According to Ministry officials, this step is in line with the emphasis given by Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on increased use of information technology to go digital to promote transparency and efficiency in the system.
The new application named Indian Railways E-Procurement System (IREPS) has been developed by CRIS.
"To submit the bills, the vendor or contractor need to register with the online IREPS.
"The registration enables the vendors to see their bill status with dates through various stages of processing of bills, the stage at which it is lying, the amount for which it is passed and other details," said an official.
The Railways said a vendor can also see the history of the bills submitted using the application.
The infirmities in the bill that need to be addressed are also visible to the vendor or contractor. The bill details are available on http://ireps.gov.in.
"It has been further reiterated that all bills will be settled within 30 days of its receipt," the statement said.
New Delhi: The Union cabinet is learnt to have cleared an ordinance to make the practice of instant triple talaq a penal offence, Law Ministry sources said Wednesday.
The 'Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill' was cleared by the Lok Sabha and is pending in the Rajya Sabha where the government lacks numbers.
The Supreme Court had banned the practice last year but since the practice was still prevalent, a bill was brought to make it a penal offence.
After the ordinance was approved, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan took to Twitter to call it a "huge victory for Muslim mothers and daughters".
Huge victory for our Muslim mothers & daughters living in the fear of instant divorce. Historic decision by Hon PM Sh. @narendramodi’s Cabinet to approve an ordinance outlawing #TripleTalaq.Despite opposition's attempts to delay the bill #ModiGovt stood firm with women of India.
— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) September 19, 2018
The Council has fixed February 1 as the compliance date for inter-state movement of goods, sources in the panel added.
The e-way bill facility bill be available for trial run from January 15.
These decisions were taken at the 24th meeting of the GST Council headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
An e-way bill is required for movement of goods worth more than Rs 50,000. When goods are transported for less than 10 km within a state, the supplier or the transporter need not furnish details on the GST portal.
The e-way bill mechanism has been introduced in the GST regime to plug tax evasion loopholes. Tax evasion was one of the reasons cited by the government for the fall in revenue collection in October.
The GST revenue for October stood at Rs 83,346 crore, the lowest since the implementation of GST from July 1.
It was significantly lower than the September figure of Rs 95,131 crore.
The BJD MPs, during discussion in Parliament, opposed the bill which seeks to reduce the tenure of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioners (IC) and give central government the control over their salary & compensation. However, the BJD members voted for it when a voting was conducted on the bill.
As per reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called up the Odisha CM, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy seeking support for the bill in the Rajya Sabha.
While the Congress lashed out at the BJD-led government, BJP and BJD appeared to be in a defensive mood.
“Chief Minister is extending supporting to PM Modi. If Biju babu(Biju Patnaik) was alive today he wouldn’t have done that,” said Congress leader and Bolangir MLA Narasingha Mishra.
Defending the decision of seeking support, Leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik said, “The bill would have been passed even without BJD’s support. It is good if it is passed with the agreement of everyone. This doesn’t mean we are planning for any sort of alliance.”
BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said, “This is not the first time that such a support was extended to the Centre. On multiple occasions, BJP had sought support and we have granted it.”
“The State government has submitted itself before the Centre so that the latter doesn’t launch any investigation against them and also for financial gains,” political expert Rabi Das said.
Meanwhile, former information commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu has said that the chief ministers of Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh should explain why they support the RTI amendment bill which, according to him, "destroys the independence of information commissioners" and "encroaches upon the sovereign rights of states".
In an open letter, Acharyulu said all the three -- Naveen Patnaik, K Chandrashekar Rao and Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy --are eminent personalities who have sacrificed a lot in taking up people's issues, strived for the interests of their region, and also the rights and sovereign powers of the states under the Constitution.
The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the contentious Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, amid uproar among the Opposition, which said the changes diluted the crucial transparency law.
The bill, which now awaits President Ram Nath Kovind’s assent, will grant greater powers to the Centre in deciding the terms of the chief information commissioners (CICs) and information commissioners (ICs) at both the central and state levels.
(With Agency inputs)
The Rajya Sabha passed the NMC Bill for replacing the corruption-plagued MCI with a new body, in what was described by the government as one of the biggest reforms for medical education in the country.
Even though the bill awaits President’s assent, medical students have expressed their resentment over the bill due to several reasons and are staging protest against various provisions of the bill.
The NMC Bill seeks a common final-year MBBS exam, to be called National Exit Test (NEXT), for admission to PG courses and also for obtaining a practice licence.
“We have supported the NMC bill but some of the clauses are completely unacceptable,” a student of SCB Medical College, Suchismita Sarangi, said.
As per the provisions of the bill, after completing a bridge course, Unani and Ayurveda doctors can prescribe allopathy medicines. Also, doctors and nurses can treat patients upto a limited extent which has been strongly opposed by doctors fearing that it will lead to quackery.
Meanwhile, the Odisha Medical Services Association (OMSA) is preparing for a strike opposing the bill. “Why have they introduced bridge course? They are not sensitive towards students and it is apparent from the steps they have taken. We strongly condemn it,” General Secretary of OMSA, Punyashlok Das, said.
President of SCB Medical College(UG), Dipak Kumar Samal, said, “18,000 seats have been given to private colleges. So, it can be estimated how much amount of corruption will be done through it.”
Earlier, fees were finalised by the State government for 85% seats of private colleges while for the rest 15% seats, the decision rested on the college authority. But with the proposal of 50-50 seat sharing between State government and college authorities, it is being argued that it may stop brilliant students from financially weaker background to get admission in private colleges.
On the other hand, political parties are opposing the setting up of National Medical Committee for a period of 2 years.
“Members will be part of the committee on rotation basis under which Odisha will not get a chance. We hope that the Centre will accept the amendments,” said Odisha Health Minister Naba Kishore Das.
“There is a need to spur investment in the field of medical education sector by simplifying procedure and focusing on outcomes instead. It is not to create inconvenience for students but to facilitate,” said Health Family Welfare Minister, Harsh Vardhan.
The bill seeks to repeal the Indian Medical Council Act 1956.
One such person is Sharada Sidhwani. Sharada holds a Pakistani passport and resides with her Indian husband Mahesh Kumar Kukreja, son and daughter in Bolangir district.
Narrating her frightening ordeal during her stay in Pakistan along with her family, Sharada says that some people were trying to convert them forcefully and even abducted her father once. She also alleged that non-muslim youths and girls were forced to adopt Islam and marry members of the community.
Amid forceful conversions, Sharada claims when she turned 18, her father decided to move to India along with the family leaving behind everything including property in Pakistan.
“Those people were converting non-muslim youths and they even tried to abduct my father following which we shifted to India,” said Sharada.
After moving to India, Sharada got married to Mahesh in the year 1990 as both the families are from Sindhi community. However, before marriage, family members of Mahesh were unaware of the fact that Sharada was a Pakistani resident.
Even though it was a little shocking for Mahesh to know about his wife’s citizenship, it never turned out to be a problem, he claims. Since then Sharada applied for Indian citizenship multiple times, but her application was not approved.
However, after the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the entire family is hopeful that Sharada will become an Indian citizen officially.
“We have been trying very hard and submitted all the necessary documents for her Indian citizenship. It will be great if she gets it,” said Mahesh.
Amid the crackdown on power defaulters by Central Electricity Supply Utility of Orissa Limited (CESU), Nath recently paid Rs 2000 electricity bill to avoid disconnection of power supply to his and the matter came to light after a video of this incident went viral on social media.
As per reports, while electric dues of Rs 2,557 were pending against Nath, he recently paid Rs 2000 after a warning by CESU and assured to pay the rest amount soon. Nath also said that henceforth he will regularly pay bills every month come what may be.
Concerned authorities have praised Nath for his decision to pay the bill despite his poor financial condition and have also paid him a certain amount of money to buy electric bulb and food.
"The electricity officials came to my house and asked to pay the pending bill. As summer season is ahead, I don't want my family to suffer that's why I decided to clear the dues," said Nath.
Speaking about the incident, an official said, "He has set an example by collecting the electricity bill. We urge everyone to pay their pending amount."