A BJP member's charge that the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh was not protecting cows being slaughtered in abundance, generated heat in Lok Sabha today with Samajwadi Party members strongly protesting it. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Vinod Sonkar expressed concern over cows being "slaughtered in broad daylight" in UP and wanted a total ban on cow slaughter.
His claim led to frayed tempers with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, supported by his party colleagues, protesting while BJP members stood up in support of Sonkar.
In the din, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan asked another member to have his say. Among other issues raised in the House was by another BJP member, C R Chaudhary, who said the Railway Ministry had identified about 3,300 experimental stations or halts to check the passenger demand and the experiment is scheduled to continue till September 30.
He demanded that this date be extended till December 31 so that their performance and the demand for rail travel from these places could be properly assessed. Mahendra Nath Pandey, also BJP, wanted a review of the definition of the Below Poverty Line (BPL) saying a lot of poor people were being excluded due to the "narrow definition" and being deprived of the facilities extended to BPL category.
P Karunakaran (CPI-M) sought continuation of rebate on Khadi products in order to promote their usage. He said the khadi industry had a long history but the workers, a large chunk of whom were women, were getting "very low wages" and the number of jobs in this sector were on the decline. A Sampath, also CPI(M), wanted the government to establish a permanent Indian consulate in Dammam in Saudi Arabia, to cater to the large number of Indians living there.
He said the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia was located in Riyadh and its officials had to travel to 500 km to Dammam two days a week to meet the demands of Indians staying there.
Bidyut Baran Mahato (BJP) wanted a probe into "large-scale" irregularities in the Indira Awas Yojana, saying corruption and irregularities was leaving out the poor and the needy for whom the scheme was meant.
Chand Nath (BJP) sought lower interest rates for short-term loans for crops to farmers in drought-hit regions of the country, while his party colleague Prahlad Singh Patel said no employment was being given to farmers in various parts of the country, including Madhya Pradesh, whose lands were taken for major projects.
S R Vijay Kumar (AIADMK) sought measures by Southern Railways to clean up trash and plastic waste from the areas around rail tracks in Chennai city. Issues including establishment of higher education institutions in Chitrakoot, improvement of BSNL services in Malkangiri and Naurangpur in Odisha, were also raised.
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