TMC, DMK again press for EPIC, delimitation debate in Parliament, urge for short duration discussions

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress and the DMK on Tuesday pushed for short duration discussions in the Rajya Sabha on the issues of duplicate voter ID card numbers and the fallout of a delimitation exercise on southern states with the latter walking out of the House over not being allowed to raise the issue.

The demands were placed in the House after Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar rejected notices seeking suspension of business to discuss these two issues as well as one by a BJP member who wanted a discussion on alleged non-implementation of PM Jan Jati Adivasi Nyay Abhiyan in West Bengal.

DMK's Tiruchi Siva said that a party MP was earlier allowed to speak on the issue and urged the Chairman and the government to agree for a short duration discussion.

Trinamool Congress floor leader Derek O'Brien said there was a broad consensus that there should be a short duration discussion on the issue of duplication of voter ID card numbers.

"It is not anyone's intention to disrupt this House. We want the House to run. Kindly consider a short duration discussion on this issue," he said.

Dhankhar described O'Brien's observations "very soothing. If the House is in order, productivity goes up and expectations of the people are fulfilled. Deliberations in accordance with rules go a long way in helping the government also and making people aware of the ground reality."

He also said he would discuss with various party leaders the issue of short duration discussions and come back to the House at the earliest.

While rejecting the notices, Dhankhar earlier said these issues can "easily, effectively and impactfully" be raised during the listed business during the course of the session.

Later in the Zero Hour, Siva once again tried to raise the issue but was denied by Deputy Chairman Harivansh following which DMK MPs walked out of the House. DMK MPs also walked out of Lok Sabha after they were denied permission to raise the issue during Question Hour.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla told protesting DMK MPs that he would allow them to speak after Question Hour, as "the issue does not arise now as there has been no Census".

"We were not given time to raise the issue. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has called the state leaders affected by delimitation. The government has not responded to the concerns raised by Tamil Nadu. We want clarity from the government,” DMK leader K Kanimozhi told reporters.

In Rajya Sabha, Trinamool Congress’ Saket Gokhale used his notice seeking Bharat Ratna for former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan to raise the issue of multiple Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) having identical numbers.

Gokhale claimed EPIC was the brainchild of Seshan and he envisaged it as a unique ID but it is no longer so. Under Seshan, he said, the Election Commission was “fiercely independent”.