Rajya Sabha Chairman remarked on the low attendance of Members in Standing Committee meetings. He noted that 8 Departmentally-Related Standing Committees which were reconstituted in September have held a total of 41 meetings thus far. Only 18 of the 80 Members of Rajya Sabha have attended all the meetings.
An informal group was later constituted in Rajya Sabha which will put forward recommendations to address the issue of child safety and pornography. They are expected to submit their report in a month.
The House then passed the Taxation (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
In Lok Sabha, questions were raised about water scarcity in the country. The Jal Shakti Minister responded that the ongoing Jal Jeevan Mission seeks to make tap water available to every household by 2024. The Ministry is also working to increase water availability per person from 40 litres to 55 litres per day.
Lok Sabha had a short duration discussion on crop loss due to various reasons and its impact on farmers. Members of the House quoted farmer suicide numbers, spoke about refusal of banks to provide loans to farmers and inability of landless farmers to benefit from government schemes. They urged that a mechanism should be set up for farmer compensation in case of crop loss due to natural calamities.
PRS wrote an explainer on the Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The Bill was introduced last week and is listed for discussion in Lok Sabha tomorrow.