After days of washout, govt pushes ahead with agenda in Parliament; passes Goa Assembly quota bill

New Delhi: Government on Tuesday pushed a bill to provide reservation for Scheduled Tribes in Goa Assembly in Lok Sabha and a resolution to extend President's Rules in Manipur, amid protests by the Opposition demanding an immediate discussion on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) on electoral rolls in Bihar and other states.

The morning session of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha could not transact much business over Opposition protest but in the afternoon, the government went ahead with legislative and other businesses. Both Houses were adjourned in 15 minutes but after passing the Bill and the resolution.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had on Monday indicated that they would go ahead with the government's legislative agenda if the Opposition continues to "disrupt" the House.

Four Bills were listed for passage in Lok Sabha but the government only took up 'The Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Bill, 2025', which has been pending in the House exactly for one year.

The Bill, which was moved by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal for passage, reserves seats for STs. So far, Goa did not have any seat reserved for STs though its population is more than Scheduled Castes, which has one seat already reserved for them.

While a couple of questions were answered during Question Hour, Speaker Om Birla had to adjourn the House till 2 PM owing to protests. After the Bill's passage, Sandhya Rai, who was in the Chair, took exception to the Opposition MPs disrupting the House and adjourned the House for the day.

In Rajya Sabha, the Morning Session saw Opposition and Treasury benches locking horns over the deployment of marshals and the demand for an immediate discussion on SIR, leading to an adjournment till 2 PM.

When the House reconvened, the Opposition continued their protest and Deputy Chairman Harivansh took up the statutory resolution extending the President's rule in Manipur for another six months. Harivansh said it has to be cleared within a timeline and it was a constitutional obligation.

He called nine Opposition MPs one by one but none spoke on the issue while some demanded that SIR be discussed. YSR Congress' Subhash Chandra Bose Pilli and BJD's Muzibulla Khan spoke in the debate to which Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai replied before the resolution was adopted. The Lok Sabha had last week adopted the resolution.

As the protests continued, Harivansh adjourned the House for the day.