Several Members spoke on the issue of drug addiction among children during the Question Hour in Lok Sabha. The Social Justice and Empowerment Minister informed the House about the ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan’ which aims to focus on the youth of the country and create awareness about drug abuse. He added that the government plans to establish de-addiction centres in 290 districts in the next five years. One Member also urged the government to have a longer discussion on the subject.
During the Zero Hour, which lasted for more than two hours, a Member raised Bihar’s low performance on indicators such as nutrition, school attendance and asset ownership in the latest multidimensional poverty index reported by the NITI Aayog. Another Member sought clarification from the government on reports of establishment of Chinese villages in Arunachal Pradesh.
The High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2021 was taken up in Lok Sabha. The Bill clarifies certain provisions on the pensions of retired Supreme Courts and High Court judges. During the debate, a Member pointed out that the Bill fell short of addressing issues in the functioning of the judiciary. He emphasized on the pendency of cases and vacancies in High Courts. PRS’s blog post examined the vacancies in our courts in detail.
Rajya Sabha saw multiple adjournments amid disruptions, before finally adjourning for the day. The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2021 and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2020 were briefly taken up, but the discussion didn’t conclude.
Proceedings in Lok Sabha were ongoing at the time of sending this mail.
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Numbers to note |
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₹ 2,998 lakh The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment informed Lok Sabha that ₹2,998 lakh have been released to de-addiction centres in the current year (as on 2nd December 2021) under the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction. In 2020-21, ₹11,453 lakh were released. |