NEW DELHI:: The eight MPs suspended for continuing with their protests against farm bills inside the Upper House who had spent the night on the lawns of Parliament in protest had a visitor in Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh who arrived with morning tea for them.

Harivansh met the suspended Rajya Sabha MPs who had spent the night on the lawns near the Gandhi statue in the Parliament premises. He was seen sitting on the ground and having tea with the MPs.

The MPS were earlier suspended by Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for “unruly behaviour” with deputy chairman Harivansh Singh.

On Monday, Venkaiah Naidu announced the one-week suspension of Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Sanjay Singh, Congress’ Rajeev Satav, Ripun Bora and Syed Nasir Hussain, CPI (M)’s KK Ragesh and Elamaram Karim for “unruly behaviour” with the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman on Sunday during the passage of the farm bills.

On Sunday Rajya Sabha witnessed unruly scenes as Opposition members stormed the well and reached the deputy chairman’s seat to protest against the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and passed by the Upper House through voice vote.

Both the Bills were earlier passed by Lok Sabha through voice votes. 

G Kishan Reddy said as informed by the National Crime Records Bureau, many states and UTs have reported “nil” data on suicides by farmers.

NEW DELHI:The government on Monday said many states and Union Territories have not provided details of farmer suicides and hence, the national data on the causes of suicide in the farming sector is “untenable” and cannot be published.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said as informed by the National Crime Records Bureau, many states and UTs have reported “nil” data on suicides by farmers, cultivators and agricultural labourers after several validations, even while reporting suicides in other professions.

“Due to this limitation, national data on the causes of suicide in farming sector was untenable and not published separately,” he said in a written reply.

According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data on accidental deaths and suicides, 10,281 farmers committed suicide in 2019, down from 10,357 in 2018.

The suicide rate in the farming sector accounted for 7.4 per cent of the total suicides in the country — 5,957 farmers and 4,324 agricultural labourers, the NCRB said in the report containing the latest data.

Institutes have been reluctant in blaming the pandemic in their official communication, when asking lecturers to go on long leave or sacking them or cutting their pay.

BENGALURU:  “We have been surviving by God’s grace,” said Rajesh K (name changed), a faculty member of a private engineering college in the city. “However, not everyone is fortunate enough to have a secondary source of income. I have a PhD and have been living with a 40 per cent pay cut since April. Several female lecturers with the same qualification have quit,” he said.

Lecturers of private colleges who were facing a difficult situation with AICTE’s rules in 2018-19 to increase the student ratio to teacher, thereby reducing the number of lecturers per college, are facing a double whammy with Covid-19, they say.

“The pandemic has been a convenient excuse to sack lecturers and cut salaries in several engineering colleges. Institutes have been reluctant in blaming the pandemic in their official communication, when asking lecturers to go on long leave or sacking them or cutting their pay.

The Local Inspection Committee that assesses the institutes also took cognizance of the alarming salary and job situation. Lecturers wrote to the AICTE, to the Chief Minister and Prime Minister’s Office. Yet, the situation on ground remains unchanged,” said Rajashekar, president, Engineering Colleges Faculties Association.

They have sought a Government Order against dismissal of lectures by private colleges amid the pandemic and have demanded full salary. “A majority are in the post of ‘assistant lecturer’ . The government should at least pay the stipulated pay that the AICTE has outlined, for the months of July and August.

Every year, lecturers from private institutes are denied salaries as this is the vacation period. This year the number of such cases has increased,” a college lecturer said. “This year, engineering colleges started cutting pay from April itself. How are we to absorb such economic shocks,” the lecturer said.

NEW DELHI: Google Pay in collaboration with Visa and banking partners on Monday rolled out tokenisation across its platform, enabling users to safely transact with their cards and use Tap-to-pay feature on near-field communication (NFC)-enabled point of sale (POS) terminals and online merchants.

The feature is now available to users of Axis and SBI Card, with Kotak and more banks expected to follow suit very soon.

With tokenisation, Google Pay Android users can use their debit or credit card to make payments through a secure digital token attached to their phone without having to physically share their credit or debit card details.

“We are hopeful that the tokenisation feature will further encourage users to transact securely and safely in the current times, and expand merchant transactions both online and offline,” said Sajith Sivanandan, Business Head: Google Pay and NBU-India.

The feature also works with online merchants, delivering more native and seamless OTP experiences without any redirects to 3D Secure sites.

With tokenisation, Google Pay will enable NFC-capable Android devices to make contactless payments at over 2.5 million Visa merchant locations.

It will allow users to scan and pay at more than 1.5 million Bharat QR enabled merchants and the customers can pay bills and recharges from within their Google Pay app using their card.

“Visa recently crossed over 1 billion token credentials globally and with Google Pay live in India, we expect these numbers to rise significantly. We are excited to partner with Google to further accelerate digital payment innovations in times to come for the Indian market and beyond,” said TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, Visa, India & South Asia.

To enable the tap and pay feature using the smartphone phone, users will have to do a one-time set up by entering their card details and follow it by entering the OTP they get from the bank to add their card to the Google Pay app.

After the registration, the feature can be used to make payments at NFC-enabled terminals, the company said.

“We are already live for Axis and SBI Card holders with Visa payments network and are working closely with Kotak and other banking partners to further expand the adoption of card-based payments with tokenisation in India,” Sivanandan added.

The eight suspended members are Derek O’Brien, KK Ragesh, Dola Sen, Syed Nazir Hussain, Sanjay Singh, Rajiv Satav, Ripun Bora and Elamaram Kareem.

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha on Monday suspended eight MPs, including TMC leader Derek O’Brien and Sanjay Singh of AAP, for the remaining part of the Monsoon session over their “unruly behaviour” during the passage of farm bills.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu termed the behaviour of members during the passage of the bills on Sunday as “very unfortunate, unacceptable and condemnable” and one that has “tarnished the image of Parliament, particularly elders’ House.”

Following the ruckus, the house was also adjourned for the day after resuming briefly at 12 noon as legislative discussions could not take place amid the disturbing atmosphere.

Earlier in the day, some members managed to raise issues during Zero Hour. The House witnessed five adjournments as some opposition members continued protests over the suspension of members.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu termed the behaviour of members during the passage of the bills on Sunday as “very unfortunate, unacceptable and condemnable” and one that has “tarnished” the image of Parliament, particularly the House of Elders.

He also rejected the notice for a no-confidence motion moved by Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and 46 other MPs against Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who was in the chair during the bedlam on Sunday, saying it was not in proper format and does not give the required 14-day notice period.

Two key farm bills were on Sunday passed by Rajya Sabha with voice vote amid unprecedented unruly scenes by protesting opposition members who were demanding that the proposed legislation be referred to a House panel for greater scrutiny The government on Monday moved a motion seeking suspension of Derek O’Brien (TMC), Sanjay Singh (AAP), Rajeev Satav (Congress), K K Ragesh (CPM), Syed Nazir Hussain (Cong), Ripun Boren (Cong), Dola Sen (TMC) and Elamaram Kareem (CPM).

Amid opposition, the motion was adopted by voice vote and the Chairman asked them to leave the House but they remained present and protested against the ruling.

Naidu called for taking up of call attention motion on GST compensation to states where O’Brien, Ragesh and Kareem were listed as movers.

But with members protesting, he moved on to the next listed business saying they were not interested.

As the protests continued, he adjourned the proceedings for 20 minutes.

The House saw three more adjournments as the suspended members remained present in the House and opposition parties protested against the decision.

Soon after the Zero Hour, Naidu said he was “pained” at the happenings during the passage of the two bills.

He condemned the unruly behaviour of some members and also “physically threatening” the deputy chairman.

As some opposition members wanted to put across their point of view, Naidu asked them to obey the chair and not speak in between.

He rejected their point of order and when they persisted, he named O’Brien and asked him to leave the House.

“It was a really bad day for democracy,” he said.

“Some members came to the well of the House and also threw papers. They wrenched the mike of Deputy Chairman. They hurled some papers on the Deputy Chairman. They abused Deputy Chairman, according to the Deputy Chairman,” he said, adding the “Rule book was also thrown on him”.

“Climbing on the table, dancing, shouting in the well, tearing papers, breaking the mike, obstructing deputy chairman from doing his duties, throwing papers, rule book on dy chairman, is it a parliamentary standard,” he asked.

“I only suggest to members of Parliament please do some introspection and is it a way to conduct ourselves,” he said.

Naidu said marshals prevented ugly scenes.

“If marshals were not called on time what would have happened to the deputy chairman. I am worried. He says he was abused with objectional words. This is very unfortunate. This should not be allowed. If you have any problem, the way (out) is to discuss, debate and decide.

If you have numbers vote against the resolution. Deputy Chairman also stated that you please go to your seat he will conduct voting. It is on record.” he said.

He said, “the deputy chairman was “physically threatened. So I am worried he would have been harmed also. Keeping this in mind, the government wants to move a resolution.”

Naidu said he had received a letter expressing no confidence against the deputy chairman.

“I have gone through the entire proceedings of the House yesterday. In light of allegations made by the Leader of the Opposition and other members, I observe that the deputy chairman had persistently requested the members to go to their seat and participate in the debate and move amendments.

“Obviously in view of the continuous disruption of the House, the division could not have taken place. Certainly, the conduct of some members grossly crossed all barriers of parliamentary decorum and etiquette and thereby bringing down the prestige of the House,” he said.

He said after carefully going through the provisions of the Constitution, rules of the House and past precedence, it is “observed at the outset that the motion is not in a proper format.”

“As per provision of Article 90(C) of the Constitution, a notice period of 14 days is required for moving a resolution of the motion. As the House is going to be adjourned sine die on October 1 the notice does not complete the required period of 14 days. Hence I rule that motion is not admissible,” he said.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan moved a resolution that eight members be suspended for the remaining part of the session “for their unruly behaviour especially with the chair.”

“And their gross disorderly conduct in the violation of rules and etiquette of Rajya thereby bringing disrepute to the this House and causing insult to the office of deputy chairman,” he said reading out the motion.

Amid protests, the motion was passed by voice vote and the Chairman said the eight members are suspended for the remaining part of the session.

Naidu also noted that COVID-19 precautions were violated by some members on Sunday.