NEWS

Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday suspended six TMC MPs for the day for carrying placards while protesting along with other opposition MPs over the Pegasus spying issue. In the midst of the din, the House passed three bills in an hour.

Naidu threatened to invoke rule 255 against those holding placards. As the members refused to budge, he ordered that those "disobeying the chair and raising placards shall leave the House under rule 255".

Later, a parliamentary bulletin identified the six MPs as Dola Sen, Md Nadimul Haque, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Shanta Chhetri, Arpita Ghosh and Mausam Noor.

The BJP has declared receiving Rs 4.80 lakh from the Amravati Municipal Corporation in 2019-20, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report on Wednesday questioning the legality of the donation.

The BJP had made this declaration in its contribution report for 2019-20, which the Election Commission had shared on its website last month. A BJP spokesperson had told The Indian Express that the amount mentioned against the Amravati Municipal Corporation was a voluntary contribution from BJP corporators from their salary towards flood relief in Maharashtra.

“The corporators requested the municipal corporation/government to deduct a small amount from their salary and collectively transfer the money to BJP on their behalf. This amount of Rs 4,80,000 pertains to those small donations (below Rs 20,000) that were collected from the corporators but transferred directly to the party by the Amravati Municipal Corporation. This amount is not a donation from Amravati Municipal Corporation,” the party spokesperson had said.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said the country was lagging behind in the ongoing vaccination against Covid-19 and the target set to vaccinate the entire adult population by December 31 was unlikely to be met.

“God knows whether we will achieve our target of December 31 that we have set. Looks like we are not. Just yesterday, it was in the press that we need to vaccinate 90 lakh people a day to be able to achieve that. How will we achieve that? We don’t have that kind of infrastructure. We don’t have that kind of vaccination. So obviously we are not going to meet it. Let’s face it,” said the Division Bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh.

The court made the observations during the hearing of a petition filed by advocate Rakesh Malhotra, in which it has been monitoring the Covid-19 situation in Delhi.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday led a breakfast meeting of over 100 opposition MPs after which the attendees rode bicycles and walked to Parliament to emphasise a “united” opposition burying differences for a bigger cause to take on BJP. The show of unity was by opposition leaders from 15 parties, including Trinamool Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena, DMK, CPM, CPI, RJD, Samajwadi Party, JMM, JKNC, IUML, RSP, KCM, LJD and RSP. Among the parties not present were BSP, BJD, TRS and AAP. Given Congress's rivalry with Akalis in Punjab, they were not present too. Trinamool's presence seemed linked to the recent thaw between Mamata Banerjee and the Gandhis.

With Congress sidestepping questions about leadership, Tuesday morning’s gathering, opposition leaders said, was called to discuss a range of issues, including the Pegasus snooping row, handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, farm agitation and the issue of price rise among others.