Opposition demands debate on 'EPIC' issue in Rajya Sabha next week

New Delhi: Opposition asked the government to schedule a discussion on the contentious ‘EPIC’ issue in Rajya Sabha next week followed by one on concerns over delimitation, sources said on Wednesday.

Senior leaders said the Opposition wants Parliament to function smoothly and it has been cooperating with the government when it comes to rescheduling certain agenda items on the request of the latter and they expect it to allow discussion on issues of their choice.

They claimed the Opposition agreed to the government request to allow Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to reply to a debate on next Monday instead of Wednesday and postponing discussions on Health and Home Ministry by a day to take up Appropriation Bills on Monday.

“We haven’t had short duration discussions or Calling Attention Motions for sometime. We want a discussion EPIC followed by one on delimitation. We want the House to function properly,” a senior Opposition leader said. In Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had demanded a discussion on “faulty voter lists”.

After Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as well as the Congress raised the ‘EPIC’ issue, the Election Commission had set a three month deadline to rectify the mistakes in the voters list.

DMK has led the protest on delimitation, claiming that the exercise would lead to southern states losing on Parliamentary seats owing to its better population control programmes.

During Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, senior RJD MP Manoj K Jha raised the ‘EPIC’ (Electoral Photo Identity Cards) issue – multiple voter cards having identical numbers – and demanded that the Election Commission should immediately determine the extent of duplicate EPIC numbers, investigate from where the fraud started, and take urgent corrective measures.

A large number of duplicate EPIC numbers have been discovered and the fairness of elections is being “compromised”, he said.

He said, “Article 324 of the Constitution ensures free and fair elections and level-playing field...This (Parliament) is the temple of democracy and democracy thrives because of elections. If the procedure and process of election is compromised and there is a smell of fraud therein then nothing will be left...Whenever apprehensions are aired, they have to be addressed...Serious questions have to be answered and responded to in a serious manner.”

Opposition leaders claimed that around 50 MPs “associated” with Jha’s submission in the Upper House.

On Monday and Tuesday, Opposition parties had walked out of Rajya Sabha over not allowing an immediate discussion on ‘EPIC’ issue. However, they have not resorted to disrupting the entire proceedings of the House so far.

The Opposition has got a shot in its arm with the BJD also joining the issue. On Tuesday, all seven BJD MPs had submitted notices seeking suspension of business to immediately discuss the ‘EPIC’ issue.