BJP member Shankar Lalwani on Monday said in Lok Sabha that minorities like Hindus and Sikhs are suffering atrocities in Pakistan and urged the Union government to take measures to help them.
Raising the issue in Zero Hour, he said temples and gurudwaras were being targeted in the neighbouring country and even minors were being forcibly converted.
They are looking to the Narendra Modi government for help, he said, and called for raising the issue at international forums. The ill-treatment of minorities in Pakistan is a violation of Nehru-Liaquat pact, he said.
Among other issues, BJP member Vinod Sonkar said the high court, railway station, airport and university in Prayagraj are still named after the city's erstwhile name of Allahabad and demanded that their names be changed too.
BSP member Danish Ali raised the issue of arrears due to sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh, saying sugar mills owe them over Rs 10,000 crore. The Union government had promised to ensure repayment to them but has failed in doing so, he said.
Raju Bista, BJP's MP from Darjeeling, said people of his hilly constituency wants a permanent political solution, saying bodies like Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and hill council have "failed" them.
BJP's Rajiv Pratad Rudy said MPs should be consulted for big projects being undertaken in their constituencies as he expressed anguish at officers "with much less experience than parliamentarians" effecting changes that go against people's interests.
He said that alignment of a bridge, which passes through his constituency Saran, was changed by bureaucrats.
Varun Gandhi of the BJP expressed concern over rising pollution which, he said, has led to a change in demographic profile of people suffering serious diseases, including lung cancer. Much younger people are now falling victims to lung cancer, he said.
Speaker Om Birla said he will allow him to raise the issue in the next session after Gandhi sought more time to speak.
Trinamool Congress' Saugata Roy accused the Union government of sitting for years on proposals of West Bengal government and demanded that it should agree to the state's proposal to change its name to Bangla.
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