Lok Sabha stalled over Ajay Mishra; Naidu urges govt, Oppn to end RS stalemate

Proceedings of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned for the day on Friday amid protests by the Opposition in both the Houses demanding removal of Ajay Mishra as Union minister and withdrawal of the suspension of MPs.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu urged the government and the Opposition to reach at a consensus over the suspension of the members to end the stalemate.

Lok Sabha agreed to the amendments made by Rajya Sabha in the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, amid protests by the Opposition members demanding the removal of Ajay Mishra as Union minister in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

As Lok Sabha reconvened at 2 pm, three bills -- the National Anti-Doping Bill, 2021, the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021, and the Chartered Accountants, the Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2021 -- were introduced after laying of various papers and reports.

Besides, minister of state for health Bharti Pravin Pawar introduced the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, as passed by Rajya Sabha for consideration and passage.

Last week, Rajya Sabha passed the bill after amendments, and returned it to Lok Sabha on December 14.

The bill aims to constitute a National Surrogacy Board and state surrogacy boards, and appointment appropriate authorities for regulation of the practice and process of surrogacy.

It was earlier passed by Lok Sabha on August 5, 2019, and transmitted to Rajya Sabha for its concurrence.

Lok Sbha passed the amended bill amid uproar by Opposition members demanding the removal of the minister whose son Ashish Mishra is among the accused in the October 3 Lakhimpur Kheri incident in Uttar Pradesh.

Eight people, including four farmers, were killed in the violence.

Soon after the passage of the bill, Rajendra Agrawal, who was chairing proceedings, adjourned Lok Sabha till Monday.

The 228th report of the law commission had recommended that the government should enact a legislation to ensure that there is only restrictive surrogacy in the country and commercial surrogacy is banned.

According to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, only Indian couples who have been legally married for at least five years would be allowed to opt for surrogacy.

The bill seeks to 'allow ethical altruistic surrogacy to the intending infertile Indian married couple between the age of 23-50 years and 26-55 years for female and male, respectively'.

Earlier in the day, the House was adjourned soon after taking up four questions and their supplementaries during the Question Hour.

As the ruckus continued, Speaker Om Birla had adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.

In the Rajya Sabha, the proceedings were adjourned for the day soon after the laying of papers on Friday, with Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu urging the government and opposition to arrive at a consensus over the issue of suspension of MPs.

Soon after the tabling of listed papers, the chairman said he has met the leader of the house Piyush Goyal and some senior members of the opposition and asked them to hold discussions.

"Today, I had a talk with the Leader of the House and also some senior members of the opposition. I would like to appeal to each one of you to please arrive at some sort of consensus to see that the house functions normally," he told the members.

"In order to facilitate discussion among yourselves, I am adjourning the house to meet on Monday," the chairman announced within minutes after it met for the day.

The Opposition has been disrupting the proceedings of the house for the last many days.

There has been a stalemate in the upper house over the issue of suspension of 12 MPs and the functioning of the house has been affected due to the protests by the opposition members seeking revocation of their suspension.

The Opposition is demanding that the suspension of MPs be revoked as the action is undemocratic and against the rules while the government wants them to apologise for their behaviour first, saying they were open to revoking their suspensions.