New Delhi, May 04: Lok Sabha today passed within few minutes a bill on minority educational institutions and another on energy conservation without any debate because of uproar over a remark by a Trinamool member against a Left MP. The bills — National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (Amendment) 2009 and Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill 2010 — were put to vote even as BJP members protested the way these were rushed through by Speaker Meira Kumar. Chanting slogans like “this is murder of democracy”, BJP members said there was no order in the House.
Their objection came as Left members trooped into the well to demand apology from Bandopadhyay for making certain expletive remarks against Acharia earlier in the day. Left members were continuously raising slogans and later they staged a dharna in the well.
The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2009 was introduced earlier in the previous Lok Sabha, but later lapsed as it could not be passed because of stiff opposition from the Left. The bill is aimed at paving the way for setting up of minority educational institutions.
The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill 2010 introduced on March 8 by Sushilkumar Shinde was also passed. The bill aims to confer powers to Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to fix the criteria and procedures for accreditation of energy auditors.
The bill empowers the BEE to appoint its officers and staff to accredit energy auditors, a job presently done by government officials. It also empowers the central government to prescribe, by rules, the procedure for issue of energy saving certificate to designated consumers and the value of metric ton of oil equivalent of energy consumed.
It levies additional penalty for failure to comply with legal provisions
—–PTI—