Compulsory voting, designating Pakistan as State sponsor of terror among 44 private member bills introduced in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: A private members bill which seeks to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday. Sanjay Jaiswal (BJP) introduced the bill “to designate Pakistan as state sponsor of terrorism”. No discussion took place on the bill. Altogether 44 private member bills were introduced in the Lower House. [caption id=“attachment_6004781” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Parliament. PTI[/caption] Besides, a private member Bill to provide for compulsory voting by the electorate in the country was introduced by Janardan Singh Sigriwal (BJP). The Law Commission had earlier said that compulsory voting was not feasible. Introducing the Bill, the Member said that in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, over 33 percent of registered voters did not vote, which was not a good sign for democracy. He cited example of Algeria, Bolivia, Brazil, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy and Switzerland where there was compulsory voting Admitting that the country might face some challenges in implementing compulsory voting, Sigriwal said it could provide ’e-voting’ facilities. Ajay Mishra (BJP) said the country should move forward towards one country, one election. Stating that the voting process should be further simplified and there need not be any compulsory voting, Mishra said if any government collapses before the end of its five-year-term, then the power to govern the state should be vested with governor or President for the remaining tenure. Nishikant Dubey (BJP) said there are 28 countries in the world which had implemented compulsory voting and even after implementing it in Australia the voter turnout was 90 percent. He demanded a discussion on the Supreme Court order to give NOTA button in EVMs and also the verdict on NJAC. CR Chaudhary (BJP) said the government is mulling sending e-ballot papers to NRI voters residing out of India which can send back via post. While, CM Ramesh (BJP) moved a Constitution Amendment Bill that did not give details, Pratap Singh Bajwa moved “The Safeguarding and Adjucating Farmers’ Economic Rights Commission Bill”. MV Rajeev Gowda introduced “The Reserve Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2018, while Vandana Chavan introduced bills that included “The Children with Specific Learning Disabilities Bill 2018”, “The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education” and “The Contract Labour Amendment Bill.” KTS Tulsi introduced the “Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2019”, Binoy Viswan “The Minimum Wages Amendment Bill”, Vinay P Sahasrabuddhe “The Companies Amendment Bill”, Vikas Mahatme “The Promotion Social and Emotional Learning in Schools Bill” and Rakesh Sinha introduced “The Population Regulation Bill”. Parvesh Sahib Singh (BJP) introduced a bill to provide for the compulsory use of bio-degradabale packaging materiaL in the supply and distribution of certain commodities. This was with the aim to curb the usage of plastic and other such non-degradable material in packaging. Shashi Tharoor (Congress) introduced a bill to provide for the establishement of a States and Union Territories Reorganisation Commission. This is to recommend the reorganisation of States and Union Territories to the Central Government through periodic review of demands for new States or Union Territories.