Oppn members throw papers, torn placards in LS; 3 bills passed amid din

The Opposition intensified its noisy protests in Lok Sabha on Wednesday over Pegasus snooping, farm laws and other issues with some unruly members even hurling papers and torn placards in the House, but the government went ahead with its legislative agenda and three bills were passed amid the din.

The House was adjourned repeatedly as an unrelenting opposition created uproar, repeating the scenes of the last over one week.

As the proceedings began, opposition members trooped into the Well of the House, raising slogans and holding placards against the government over a number of issues including snooping allegations linked to Israeli spyware Pegasus.

Speaker Om Birla continued with the Question Hour despite disruptions. This was for the first time that Lok Sabha completed the Question Hour in the Monsoon session which began on July 19.

As members from the Congress, Trinamool Congress and other parties continued with the sloganeering, Birla was seen going through a book on House procedures.

Soon after the Question Hour ended, Speaker Birla left the House and Rajendra Agrawal took over.

When papers were being laid, Congress members Gurjeet Aujala, TN Prathapan, Hibi Eden and some others threw business papers of the day, some torn papers as well as placards at the Chair. A piece of the torn placard landed in the press gallery just above the Speaker's podium.

However, Agrawal continued with the proceedings.

The members repeatedly threw papers at the Chair and later towards the Treasury benches. One of the papers landed near the seat of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi.

The Chair then adjourned the proceedings till 12.30 pm and the House was adjourned for the day after a few more brief adjournments.

In the middle of the protests, Lok Sabha passed the IBC amendment bill without a debate after Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh moved it for consideration and passage.

The bill among other things provides for a pre-packaged resolution process for stressed MSMEs.

Singh said the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2021, will replace the ordinance that was promulgated on April 4 as part of efforts to provide relief to MSMEs adversely impacted by the pandemic.

Lok Sabha also approved the first batch of supplementary demands authorising the government to spend an additional Rs 23,675 crore, including Rs 17,000 crore for the health ministry, in the current financial year.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the supplementary demands for grants and relevant appropriation bills.

According to the first batch of supplementary demands for grants tabled in Lok Sabha by Sitharaman on July 20, although the gross additional expenditure is over Rs 1.87 lakh crore in 2021-22, the actual cash outgo will only be Rs 23,674.81 crore as the remaining spending will be met through savings and higher receipts and recoveries.

It approved the relevant appropriation bills, authorising the government to withdraw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India to meet additional expenditure.