Lok Sabha to Continue Discussion on SIR Today

Senior Congress MP Manish Tewari opened the debate yesterday, with Leader of Opposition (LoP) Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi extending the discussion from the opposition side, levelling serious accusations that the EC is colluding with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to "shape elections". Gandhi said that vote theft was an anti-national act.

Apart from Gandhi, senior Congress leaders were listed to participate in the debate on election reforms, including KC Venugopal, Manish Tewari, Varsha Gaikwad, Mohammed Javaid, Ujjwal Raman Singh, Isa Khan, Ravi Mallu, Imran Masood, Gowaal Padavi and S Jyotimani.

A total of 10 hours has been earmarked for the entire discussion in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

The upper house of Parliament is also set to take up discussion on electoral reforms after further discussion on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram on Wednesday. In the Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to initiate the discussion on SIR.

The opposition parties had been demanding a debate on SIR for months, with Congress alleging discrepancies in the voter list.

Meanwhile, on the list of business for the day, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Bhartruhari Mahtab and Congress MP K Gopinath will lay the "Final Action Taken" statements on recommendations contained in six reports of the Standing Committee on Finance.

BJP MPs Anurag Thakur and Manna Lal Rawat will present the Fifteenth Report of the Standing Committee on Coal, Mines and Steel on the subject ‘Expediting and Simplifying the Environment and Forest Clearance Process for Coal Mining Projects’ relating to the Ministry of Coal.

BJP MP Parshottam Rupala and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) MP Veena Devi are expected to lay the 331st Report of the Standing Committee on Industry on Action Taken by the Government on the recommendations/observations contained in the 328th Report of the Committee on “Review of Performance of Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)” pertaining to the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

The 6th Session of the 18th Lok Sabha and the 269th Session of the Rajya Sabha commenced on Monday, December 1, marking the beginning of the Winter Session of Parliament. The session will conclude on December 19.