New Delhi: The BJD MP representing Mayurbhanj in the Lok Sabha, Ram Chandra Hansdah, Tuesday raised the provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) using which elected representatives are harassed by prosecution agencies.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Lower House, Hansdah said, “The judiciary is still operating under the British era criminal procedure code under which prosecution agencies are given more importance than the justice delivery system. There are some anomalies in the CrPC of 1860. Section 167 has mandated time-bound investigation by filing charge-sheets in all cases.”
He added, “Section 178 on the contrary allows the case to be opened for investigation which sometimes starts before the final verdict of the trial court. In such circumstances when a public representative is arrested in a false case and the judiciary is misled by prosecution agencies it becomes prejudicial to accused politicians, who are forced to languish in jail indefinitely.”
The MP told the House that it not only curtails the rights granted by Article 21 of the Constitution but also deprives people a chance to put forth grievances before the right forum. “I request the Law Commission and the Law Ministry to consider doing away with such anomalies in the criminal justice system,” he said.
Include Coast Canal in waterways, Jena tells LS
New Delhi: The BJD MP from Balasore, Rabindra Kumar Jena, Tuesday urged Union Road Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari in the Lok Sabha to consider including the Orissa Coast Canal of Balasore in the next phase of waterways.
Jena raised the demand while debating the Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill 2017 in the Lower House. He said, “I request the minister to consider including the Orissa Coast Canal in the next phase of waterways to help the people of Balasore.” Jena also demanded that the three highways passing through his constituency given Central attention to avoid accidents and deaths, describing the highways as ‘death beds’.
The MP also accused the Centre of neglecting Orissa. He said, “In Orissa we are victims of Central neglect whether it is Mahanadi, Polavaram or budget allocation. In 2016-17 the state was allocated only 12 projects under the Central Road Fund while other states got 562 projects. What is the logic behind this? Please do justice to Orissa.”
The MP, however, supported the Bill on behalf of his party and lauded the Centre for the Bill which mandates allocating the cess collected from petrol and diesel cars for developing inland waterways. However, he pointed out critical issues like higher logistic costs, threat to ecology and its consequences on irrigation and drinking water.
He also added that unless environmental assessments are done, the environment is going to face challenges. For example Bhitarkanika in the state is facing danger. He also urged the ministry to allocate more funds to maintain National Highways.
Make public Chinese stand on Bramhaputra: Mahtab
New Delhi: Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) Tuesday urged the Union government to make public the contents of the meeting held between the Centre and the Chinese government over alleged reports of contamination of River Bramhaputra by China.
Mahtab raised the issue during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha. He said, “The Siang river, which flows from Tibet and becomes the Bramhaputra in Assam, has been reportedly contaminated for the last three-four months. It was reported that the contamination is done by the China and the water has become unfit for consumption.”
“Recently it was reported that the Indian External Affairs Minister and the Chinese counterpart had a meeting recently. The reaction of China has not been made public despite the fact that the Arunachal government has repeatedly called for Central attention. We demand that the Union government make the contents of the meeting public and tell the Parliament the stand taken by the China into this matter,” Mahtab added.
Puri MP bats for ‘UK model’ repealing of obsolete laws
New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP representing Puri in the Lok Sabha, Pinaki Mishra, Tuesday called for adopting United Kingdom’s (UK) model of repealing and amending obsolete laws when the Repealing and Amending Bill 2017 comes for discussion in the LS.
Speaking on behalf of his party, Mishra said, “We support the Bill. Some 1,301 obsolete laws were abolished in the 66 years before the BJP government took over. In the last three years the present government has scrapped 1,824 obsolete laws. There are still thousands of laws which require repealing.”
He added, “The government must follow the UK system (sunset model) of automatic repealing in which there is no need to come to Parliament to repeal a law. Bills are automatically repealed after it has served its purpose.”
The Puri MP told the House that most of the laws that were repealed in the last three years were on appropriation which could have been easily repealed through the sunset model and added that there are archaic laws dating back to as long back as 1836 which have to be repealed as many of them had not been used in the last 200 years.
Mishra also urged Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who moved the Bill to consider uploading all Bills online so that wider inputs could be gathered by the government from all stakeholders.
Homosexuality raised
The MP also raised the issue of repealing the law criminalising homosexuality. Mishra said, “There are laws which are completely obsolete and out of tune with the times. One of them is Section 377 of IPC which criminalises sex between consenting adults of the same gender.” He urged Parliament to repeal the law describing it as “obsolete and out of tune with 21st century.”
PNN
