Parliament Live | Ruckus In RS Over JPC On Waqf Bill; Lok Sabha Adjourned Till 2 PM, FM Sitharaman To Introduce New Income Tax Bill Today

"I was a member of the JPC committee and I was a part of the entire process. The proceedings of the JPC were turned into a joke... The suggestions of the opposition leaders were not at all included in the report. This is a murder of Democracy and Constitutional proceedings," said AAP MP Sanjay Singh about the JPC report on the Waqf Bill.

"Today, a group of Lok Sabha MPs, which included A Raja, Kalyan Banerjee, Imran Masood, Mohammad Jawed, Gaurav Gogoi, and me, went to meet the Speaker. We told him that many pages and paragraphs of our dissent notes have been redacted from the JPC report. He was kind enough to ask the Secretary-General to include from our dissent notes whatever the rules permitted ... Later, we sat in the Parliamentary library and included most of the redacted pages in the report, which will be presented in the Lok Sabha at 2 pm... The paragraphs that expressed aspersions on the working of the committee were not included since they were against the rules..," said Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM Chief and member of the JPC on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

On the Waqf JPC report to be submitted in Lok Sabha today, DMK MP and Waqf JPC member Mohammed Abdullah says, "The procedures have not been followed properly. They have rushed all the meetings and overruled all the regulations... Even a single amendment from the Opposition was not adopted... The portion of our dissent notes was deleted... They will go for lands of other religious places soon..."

With the JPC report tabled in Rajya Sabha today, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said on Thursday that instead of focusing on the already available Waqf Act, an attempt is being made to bring a politically motivated amendment.
Speaking to ANI, Gogoi asserted that several members of parliament have expressed their dissent in the JPC report, highlighting the constitutional negligence caused by this bill.
"Currently, there is an act that manages Waqf properties, and instead of focusing on how the government can better implement this act, an attempt has been made to bring a politically motivated amendment," he said.
"When the Bill will be discussed in the Parliament, it will become clear how the government brought this bill without any preparation," Gogoi added.
Congress MP KC Venugopal also slammed the Centre and said that the way in which the JPC conducted, it "was wrong."

The Opposition stages a walkout of the Rajya Sabha amid the discussion on the report of the JPC on the Waqf Amendment Bill.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju tagged the opposition's claims of dissent notes in the JPC Report on Waqf Bill being deleted as "baseless". He said no opposition notes have been deleted.

Report of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was tabled in Rajya Sabha. Leader of Opposition, Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that the dissent remarks have been deleted from it. Calling it condemnable, anti-democratic, Kharge urged Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar to reject the report and send it back. Kharge claimed that statements of non-stakeholders are included in the report.

Syed Naser Hussain, Congress MP from Karnataka said his dissent notes have been deleted. “Discussion among JPC members were not done,” Hussain said. Hussain demanded the report be taken back

Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm on Thursday amid protests by Opposition members over the allocation of a project to a businessman in Gujarat.

As soon as the House met for the day, Opposition members, including those from Congress, sought to raise the issue of the project allocation.

A visibly peeved Speaker Om Birla told the protesting members not to disrupt the proceedings and urged them to follow the tradition of the House.

He also asked the members whether they don't want the House to function and as the protests continued, the proceedings were adjourned in less than five minutes till 2 pm.

One question was taken up during the Question Hour.

The Congress on Wednesday alleged that the Centre endangered national security to benefit private billionaires, over reports that border security rules were relaxed for a business group to set up an energy park.

Reacting to media reports that the government relaxed national security protocols along the Pakistan border to make way for a renewable energy park of the Adani Group in Gujarat, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said that the pseudo-nationalism face of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has once again been unmasked.

The Adani Group did not respond to the allegations.

Rajya Sabha resumed proceedings at 11.20 am after a brief adjournment

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned briefly on Thursday amid uproar by opposition parties after tabling of the joint committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

The report was tabled by BJP member Medha Vishram Kulkarni, a member of the panel.

The tabling of the report was followed by uproar by members from the opposition benches.

The clamour continued as Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar tried to read out a message from the president.

"Don't show disrespect to the president of India..." Dhankhar said and urged Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge to ask the opposition members to take their seats.

As the uproar continued, the Upper House was adjourned till 11:20 am.

Both Lok Sabha And Rajya Sabha resumed proceedings at 11 am.

Congress MPs, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, staged a demonstration in Parliament House premises on Thursday over the issues of animal attacks in Kerala and protection of coastal areas from sand mining.

"Since December 27, 11 people have been killed by wild animals in Wayanad.

It is a very worrisome situation," Priyanka Gandhi told reporters.

"The Central government and the state government have to send funds to mitigate this problem because when I spoke with local level people they are trying their best but they don't have enough funds," the MP from Wayanad said.

The MPs carried placards like 'stop offshore sand mining', 'save lives'“, 'prevent wildlife attacks' and 'protect coastal and forest bordering communities'.

Raising the issue of sand mining, the Opposition Congress and the RSP had demanded in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that the Centre withdraw its decision to conduct offshore sand mining in Kerala, Gujarat, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Congress MP K C Venugopal had said the livelihood of the fishermen community would be affected.

"The government has to withdraw this order to save the environment and fishermen," he had said.

Congress MP Mohammad Javed on Waqf (Amendment) Bill being listed to be tabled in Lok Sabha today: "The BJP wants to seize Waqf land meant for the underprivileged. This is just the beginning—they aim to take over all religious properties. The JPC was merely an eyewash, created to deceive people. It was even mentioned in the President's speech to serve electoral purposes. I firmly believe this is part of a larger conspiracy by the Modi government to take away land from the poor."

Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi arrives at the Parliament for a meeting with Congress MPs

Congress MP Manish Tewari files an Adjournment Motion in the Lok Sabha to discuss the establishment of a renewable energy facility in close proximity to the Indo-Pakistan border.

The report of the joint committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill has been listed for presentation in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The report was submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on January 30. According to the agenda for Thursday circulated on Wednesday evening, panel chief Jagdambika Pal will table the report along with "record of evidences".

The Income-Tax Bill, 2025 is scheduled to be introduced in the Lok Sabha today. A crispier and simplified Income Tax Bill 2025, having 536 sections, and 23 chapters running into 622 pages, once enacted will replace the six-decade Income Tax Act 1961, which over the years became bulkier and more complex with amendments.

The proposed law replaces the term 'previous year' as mentioned in the Income Tax Act, 1961 with 'tax year'. Also, the concept of assessment year has been done away with. Currently, for income earned in the previous year (say 2023-24), tax is paid in the assessment year (say 2024-25).