Reforms in voters' list need of the hour: Cong MP

Highlighting plight of voters who find their names missing on polling day, a Congress MP in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday suggested that there should be a permanent voters' list to address the issue.

Raising the matter during the Zero Hour in the House, senior Congress member P L Punia said a large number of eligible voters find their names missing or deleted from voters' list.

Also, there are separate voters' list for different elections like gram panchayat, state legislative assembly and Lok Sabha.

To address the issue, Punia said there should be a permanent voters' list. A name should only be removed if the voter moves to another area and added in the list there.

"Name should be permanently entered (in the list) and should not be deleted," he said.

Punia further said there have been talks of electoral reforms, but the need of the hour is reforms in voters' list.

Mahesh Poddar (BJP) demanded strict laws to check cattle smuggling for slaughtering for beef and leather industry.

He wondered that if someone works for tiger protection, he or she is called an 'activist', someone working for dogs is termed as 'animal lover', but if a person works for cow protection, he is labelled as a "fanatic".

In his Zero Hour mention, S Muthukaruppan (AIADMK) said students from Tamil Nadu studying in other states are not able to study Tamil language.

He urged the central government to ensure that Tamil should be made an optional language for study in other states.

To this, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said, "Same should be done by Tamil Nadu for others also".

BJP member Shiv Pratap Shukla drew the attention of the House towards need to de-silt rivers to check floods. He also suggested rivers should be inter-linked as it would solve the problem of flooding.

Another senior Congress MP Motilal Vora expressed concern over "reduction" in salaries of ISRO scientists. He said the central government's decision in this regard would affect 16,000 scientists.

He urged the government to review the decision and take it back.

BJD member Amar Patnaik highlighted problems being faced by small and marginalised farmers in getting institutional credit. He suggested there should be a credit guarantee fund for farmers.

DMK member T K S Elangovan said the Indian textiles industry was facing threat due to imports of garments like T- shirts and silk through Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Binoy Viswam (CPI) said rice meant for poor people under the Right to Food Act was being diverted in Manipur and other north-eastern states.

He alleged it was happening due to a "nexus" among contractors, politicians and bureaucrats.

Viswam urged the central government to ensure that food items meant for the poor reach them.