NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die on Wednesday, a day ahead of the scheduled end of the Winter Session of Parliament, with Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu lamenting that the Upper House functioned much below its potential due to repeated disruptions.

The session, which started on November 29, was scheduled to conclude on December 23.

Soon after laying of listed papers and reports, Naidu said he was not happy to share with members the that the House functioned “much below its potential”.

“I urge all of you to…reflect and introspect if this session could have been different and better. I don’t want to speak elaborately on the course of the session that would lead me to make a very critical view,” he said.

The chairman stressed that rulings, regulations and procedures have to be followed and said precedents, decency and decorum has to be maintained by members in the House.

He also called on members for “realisation of what has happened is wrong” and said that “we should all work towards a constructive and positive atmosphere for the larger interest of the country”.

Naidu wished MPs a Merry Christmas and a prosperous English New Year, and also conveyed his greetings for Makar Sankranti, Pongal and other upcoming festivals.

The session was a stormy one as it witnessed several disruptions by members of opposition parties, including they trooping into the Well of the House, carrying placards, over the suspension of 12 MPs for their “unruly” conduct in the previous session in August.

Opposition members also protested on the Special Investigation Team’s report regarding the October 3 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh and farmers’ issues, among others.

Despite disruptions and loss of business hours, the Rajya Sabha passed several key bills, including those related to electoral reforms and surrogacy.

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Monday wrote to the Centre, asking for obtaining presidential assent for two bills passed by the state Assembly in 2018 for ensuring stringent punishment for those involved in desecration incidents.

Randhawa wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah for ensuring assent to the Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018 and the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, which provide for life imprisonment for the sacrilege of holy books.

In the letter, Randhawa, who holds home portfolio, wrote, “I want to bring to your notice that sacrilege of holy books is becoming a major issue in Punjab.”

“Shri Guru Granth Sahib is considered a living Guru and not an object by the Sikhs and it is accorded respect according to Sikh maryada. In this context, it was felt that the existing provisions of Section 295 and 295-A of the Indian Penal Code-1860 which provide for a punishment of up to three years are inadequate to deal with this situation,” he said.

“So, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha passed the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018 and The Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2018 which provide for punishment up to life imprisonment for whoever causing injury, damage or sacrilege to the Shri Guru Granth Sahib, Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Holy Quran and Holy Bible with the intention to hurt religious feelings of people,” he wrote.

Randhawa said these bills were given assent by the Punjab governor in September 2018.

However, these have been pending for assent of the President since October, 2018, he said.

“Punjab being a border State, it is extremely necessary to maintain communal harmony here. For this, deterrent punishment is a must for those trying to disturb communal harmony by indulging in the sacrileges. So, I again request that the Presidential assent for the said Bills may kindly be obtained and conveyed to the state government at the earliest possible,” he wrote.

Two unidentified men were beaten to death at the Golden Temple in Amritsar and at a gurdwara in Kapurthala district for their alleged sacrilege attempts.

CHENNAI: A-17 year old girl from Erode district in Tamil Nadu has received a full scholarship worth Rs 3 crore to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Chicago in the US.

Swega Saminathan, daughter of a farmer, hails from Kasipalayam village in Erode, a release from Dexterity Global, where she received training under its leadership development and career development programs, said in a release.

She was identified and groomed by Dexterity Global when she was 14, it said.

Expressing joy over the scholarship, Swega credited the organisation and its founder Sharad Sagar for the same.

DUBAI: Human Rights Watch said Monday a Saudi court had sentenced a Yemeni man to 15 years for apostasy, urging the kingdom to prioritise decriminalising blasphemy amid a modernisation drive.

The rights group said that Ali Abu Luhum, 38, had been accused of making comments “via two anonymous Twitter accounts”, which prosecutors argued were registered with phone numbers linked to him.

“The court found that the tweets were promoting ‘apostasy, unbelief, and atheism'”, HRW said, reporting the trial was held without defence witnesses.

Charges against Abu Luhum included the reported “denial of the existence of God” as well as publishing content which “prejudices public order, religious values, and public morals on social media”, HRW said.

It said Abu Luhum was found guilty of “promoting atheism” and was sentenced to “15 years in prison for apostasy”, but gave no further details of what he was accused of saying.

There was no immediate response from Riyadh.

The trial was held in October, with an appeal awaiting a decision by the Supreme Court, HRW said.

Abu Luhum is held in a jail in Najran, close to the border with Yemen.

The Sunni Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition backing Yemen’s internationally-recognised government in its battle against Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has sought to project a moderate, business-friendly image of his austere kingdom as he seeks to boost investment to diversify the economy away from oil.

Saudi has also invested heavily in recent years in the tourism, entertainment and sports sectors.

“Saudi authorities are sparing no expense to portray the country as tolerant and reforming, but contradicting state orthodoxy on religion still results in a decade-and-a-half prison sentence,” Michael Page, HRW’s deputy Middle East, said in a statement.

“A ‘modernising’ Saudi Arabia needs to first stop policing people’s personal beliefs,” he added, calling for “the decriminalisation of blasphemy.”

AHMEDABAD: Ninety-eight per cent of land acquisition for PM Narendra Modi’s dream project ‘Ahmedabad-Mumbai High-Speed Rail Project’ has been completed. This bullet train project covers a distance of 353 kilometers. The civil work has started on a stretch of 343 km.

The project is estimated to cost Rs 72,000 crore, of which Rs 14,200 crore have already been spent. Recently, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel reviewed the progress of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai High-Speed Rail Project at a meeting in Ahmedabad. In the meeting, National High-Speed Rail Corporation Managing Director Satish Agnihotri said: “Sub-structure and superstructure works are on in Ahmedabad, Kheda, Anand, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Navsari and Valsad districts of Gujarat.” He added: “Works are underway to build bridges across major rivers like Narmada, Tapi, and Mahi that fall along the bullet train route. A full span box girder is being set up using heavy equipment like a straddle carrier and bridge gantry to accelerate the project. The first such girder was successfully erected in Navsari in November.” 

BETTIAH: A resident of this north Bihar town has left his family members, including his estranged wife, shocked by appearing in reality show “Bigg Boss” as the husband of actress Rakhi Sawant.

“The complainant currently resides at her parents’ home in Nawada. In her complaint, handed over to us by her brother Ravikant, she has claimed to have tied the knot with Ritesh at a marriage hall in Bettiah”, said the Superintendent of Police Upendra Nath Verma.

The woman had started living separately a few years back after lodging a complaint of domestic violence against her husband and in-laws, though she claims the couple did not divorce each other, said the SP.

The family of Ritesh Raj, whose father is a retired station master, is also baffled.

“We do not know when and how he married the actress. I learnt about it from my neighbours who informed me after spotting him on TV”, Madhubala Devi, the mother of Ritesh, said with a touch of incredulity.

She said her son was an IIT alumni, worked as a software professional in Bengaluru who frequently travelled abroad “because of which he does not remain in touch with us on a regular basis”.

Meanwhile, the SP said an investigation has been launched, and based on evidence an FIR may be lodged against Ritesh Raj under relevant sections of the IPC and Hindu Marriage Act.

According to media reports, Sawant had confirmed her marriage to Ritesh in 2019 and claimed that he was an “NRI”.

NEW DELHI: Amid Opposition criticism of a bill to link Aadhaar with electoral rolls, sources in the government on Tuesday said the move would solve the “major problem” of multiple enrolment of the same person at different places and help in “cleaning” the voters list to a great extent.

The assertion comes a day after the ‘Election Laws (Amendment) bill 2021’ to link electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem and bring other poll reforms was passed by the Lok Sabha after a brief debate and amid demand by the Opposition to refer it to a standing committee.

The government sources said the bill incorporates various electoral reforms which have been discussed for a long time.

Registration in the electoral roll is done based on an application by a person who is eligible to be registered as a voter and this bill has a provision whereby the new applicant may voluntarily provide the Aadhaar number along with the application for the purpose of identity, they said.

No application will be rejected on the grounds that Aadhaar number has not been provided, the sources added.

Aadhaar linking with electoral roll will solve “one of the major problems” in electoral database management which is multiple enrolment of the same person at different places, they said.

This may be due to the frequent shifting of residence by electors and getting enrolled in the new place without deleting the previous enrolment, the sources noted.

Thus, the possibility of electors whose names appear in more than one electoral roll or at times more than once in the same electoral roll can be removed, they said.

Once Aadhaar linkage is achieved, the electoral roll data system will instantly alert the existence of previous registration(s) whenever a person applies for new registration, the sources said.

This will help in “cleaning” the electoral roll to a great extent and facilitate voter registration in the location at which they are ‘ordinarily resident’, the sources added.

Besides linking electoral roll to Aadhaar, the bill also seeks to make the statutes gender neutral by substituting the term ‘wife’ with ‘spouse’ to allow husbands of service voters to cast their vote from the place where their wives are posted.

It also seeks to provide four qualifying dates — January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 — in a year for registration of voters, instead of a single qualifying date — January 1.