Issues ranging from reservation in promotion for schedules castes and tribes in government jobs to declaration of Andhra Pradesh as a special category state were raised in the Lok Sabha today.
Heated exchanges were witnessed for some time between BJP MPs like Nishikant Dubey and K Suresh of Congress when the latter raised the issue of reservation in promotions for SCs and STs in government jobs and asked his ruling party counterparts belonging to these categories to raise the matter and ensure that the government brings a law on it.
Maintaining that these categories were being denied promotions, Suresh said a bill brought by the previous UPA government could not see the light of the day because "some parties did not support it."
When he urged the BJP members to demand that the NDA government bring such a measure now, Dubey and some other members stood up and shouted that the Congress had failed to bring such a bill.
Srinivasa Rao (TDP) said injustice was being done to the "residual" state of Andhra Pradesh as it had lost all major assets to Telangana after the bifurcation. He blamed both BJP and Congress for the "critical" situation faced by the state.
While Bhola Singh (BJP) demanded a package for the relief and rehabilitation of people in several districts of Bihar who were hit by the recent heavy storms and rains, some AIADMK members asked the government to prevent foreign vessels from entering into India's exclusive economic zone to the detriment of the interests of Indian fishermen.
Selvakumar (AIADMK) asked the government to rescind the increase in interest rates on farm loans and sought more interest-free loans to farmers.
