The government Thursday introduced a Bill in the Lok Sabha to amend certain enactments to decriminalise minor offences amid a ruckus by the Opposition that saw the House being adjourned multiple times. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal introduced the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill in the Lok Sabha seeking permission of the House for the same to be sent to a joint committee of Parliament. Soon after, the House was adjourned for the day at 4.45 pm. In the afternoon, the House took up matters under Rule 377 only to be adjourned twice before it was reconvened at 4.30 pm allowing enough time to Goyal to introduce the Bill. The Opposition created a ruckus in the Lok Sabha through the day demanding the Prime Minister’s presence in the House to answer questions on China’s incursions across the Line of Actual of Control. Introducing the Bill, Goyal said, “In our country there are many such laws under which people are punished or have to make rounds of courts for very minor offences. Government thinks that we must trust people. Generally, ordinary people and businessmen want an honest system, run their businesses honestly and live an honest life. Sometimes they end up committing mistakes too. In such situations, we believe they must not be prosecuted for small offences. We want to bring in a system that has provisions for compounding of such offences by way of fines.” Goyal underlined that the Modi government had since 2014 taken multiple decisions to make life easy for people which he said included decisions such as self attestation of documents and introduction of GST to reform the taxation system. “All these have impacted ease of doing business and ease of living. We want to give foreign investors red carpet and not red tape. We jumped from 141th position on the index of ease of doing business to 63. We have repealed 1,500 obsolete laws, simplified 39,000 compliances and brought 3,500 such provisions that have decriminalised minor offences,” he said. According to Goyal, through the proposed Bill, the government intends to decriminalise 182 provisions of 42 laws across 19 ministries. “We believe winning the trust of the people and the business class is of utmost importance. That is why it has been named the Jan Vishwas Amendment Bill, 2022,” he said, asking for the Bill to be referred to a joint committee of Parliament. ‘Discuss China’: Opp disrupts both Houses New Delhi: Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha saw vociferous protests by opposition parties on Thursday over their demand for a detailed discussion on the India-China border conflict. In a first in the ongoing winter session, the Lok Sabha was repeatedly adjourned by disruptions as opposition parties demanded the Prime Minister’s presence in the House to answer questions on China’s incursions across the LAC. The Lower House saw five adjournments and was finally adjourned for the day at 4.45 pm. In Rajya Sabha, the Opposition boycotted the day’s proceedings after their demand for a discussion was disallowed. Repeated pleas by the Chairman to the protesting members maintain decorum and take their seats went unheeded. The Opposition later staged a walkout, boycotting the day’s proceedings. Among parties that boycotted the proceedings were the Congress, NCP, TMC, DMK, CPI, CPI(M), SP, JMM, RJD, JD(U) and AAP. —ENS & PTI
