Daily Bulletin: Parliament to discuss Delhi pollution crisis; JNU students to continue protest against fee hike; day's top stories

Parliament to discuss Delhi pollution woes, Surrogacy, Chit Fund Bills On the second day of the Winter Session of Parliament, a discussion on the air pollution crisis will be held in the Lok Sabha at 2 pm. Congress’ Manish Tewari and BJD’s Pinaki Misra will initiate the discussion, which will conclude with a reply from Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar. The Chit Funds (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha the first day of the Winter Session on Monday and will see further discussion and voting for its passage following a reply by Minister of State (Finance) Anurag Thakur. The Bill seeks to amend the Chit Funds Act, 1982, which regulates chit funds and prohibits a fund from being created without the prior sanction of the state government. [caption id=“attachment_7668751” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Opposition leaders protest in the Well during first day of Parliament’s Winter Session. PTI[/caption] The 250th Rajya Sabha session, where obituary references were made and a discussion on its significance was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its first day, will see the tabling and voting on the Surrogacy and Jallianwala Bagh Bills. The Lok Sabha session began on a stormy note on Monday with Opposition MPs demanding the presence of detained Jammu and Kashmir National Conference supremo Farooq Abdullah and the Shiv Sena walking out of the House over the agrarian crisis in Maharashtra. JNUSU to continue protest against fee hike from 10 am JNU students will continue their protest from 10 am in Delhi demanding a complete roll back in the fee hike, a day after around 30 police personnel and 15 students injured during JNU protest. Students of JNU clashed with police on Monday after they were stopped from marching to Parliament against a hostel fee hike, paralysing traffic and bringing the city to a halt. The students also clashed with the police outside Safdurjung tomb near Jor Bagh. While the students alleged that they were baton-charged by police, top police officials denied having used any force. Students from different universities across the National Capital had joined the protest march called by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students against the recent fee hike against which an agitation has been going on for over three weeks. Before the protest began, the HRD ministry set up a three-member committee to recommend ways to restore normal functioning of the university and initiate dialogue with the students and administration. Maharashtra political crisis: NCP, Congress leaders to continue discussions Top NCP and Congress leaders to continue discussions on Tuesday, a day after a meeting with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar ended with the latter saying that the issue of government formation in Maharashtra was not discussed and remained non-committal in forging an alliance with its political rival. Pawar said the NCP and the Congress will hold talks with their other allies, including the Samajwadi Party, Republican Party of India (Kawade faction), Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and the Peasants Workers Party, before taking a decision on government formation. Addressing a press conference after his 50 minute-long meeting with Gandhi, he also said there was also no discussion on a common minimum programme. Meanwhile, Swabhimani Paksha leader Raju Shetti on Monday said his party will decide on joining a prospective Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra after they declare their common minimum programme (CMP). 30 students join protest seeking probe into IIT Madras student’s death Thirty students joined protests seeking an investigation into the death of IIT Madras student Fathima Latheef. Two students of the institute had on Monday launched an indefinite fast on the campus demanding an internal inquiry into the conduct of faculty as sought by the family of a woman student who committed suicide recently. “Our main demand is an internal inquiry into the conduct of faculty; Fathima’s family in their letter to the director (of IIT) had sought an internal probe into the conduct of faculty and we are backing their demand, there are other demands as well,” one of the students on the indefinite hunger strike told PTI. The prestigious institute has been rocked by protests after Fathima Latheef, a first-year humanities student, committed suicide in its hostel on 9 November. Her Kerala-based family has alleged a senior faculty was responsible for her taking the extreme step. Results of elections to 49 local bodies in Rajasthan to be announced The counting of votes for the elections to 49 municipal bodies in Rajasthan. The polling was held on Saturday to elect nearly 2,100 ward councillors. “Preparations for the counting have been completed. It will start at 8 am under tight security arrangements,” a state election commission official said. According to the commission, nearly 72 percent voters exercised their franchise in the elections, with a maximum of 91.67 percent turnout in Nasirabad municipality of Ajmer district. The overall voting percentage was 71.53 per cent. The BJP and the Congress control 21 municipal bodies each while the rest seven are with others. The election for chairman and deputy chairman posts in the local bodies will be held on 26 and 27 November respectively. India, Bangladesh to play second test in Kolkata with pink ball The second Test match between India and Bangladesh, to be held at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens on 22 November, will be the first day-night Test match in the country which will be played with pink balls. As the match approaches, the Indian and Bangladeshi teams are training in Indore to get used to the pink ball. India had emerged victorious in the first Test match. Eight of the 12 Test match-playing nations have had a stint with the pink ball. The Indian cricket team is the only major Test-playing one to have not played a day-night Test. Both the teams will be making their debut with the pink ball. Air India extends bridge-loan bid deadline for Boeing purchase to 22 November Air India has extended the deadline for lenders to submit bids for a Rs 5,800-crore bridge-loan facility to refinance seven wide-body Boeing planes, to 22 November. The financial bids were to scheduled to be closed on 14 November. The carrier is seeking to refinance six Boeing 787s and one B777. The selloff-bound airline had on 30 October floated bids from banks/ financial institutions to refinance its existing bridge-loan facility worth $819 million or worth over Rs 5,800 crore by 14 November. “Though we received two bids, we have extended the deadline for bids to 22 November for greater participation,” said a senior Air India official without naming the banks/financial institutions. Huawei given a three-month extension for its US trade ban According to new documents filed by the US Commerce Department, Chinese manufacturer Huawei Technologies has been granted a reprieve for its US ban. Previously, the deadline was until August which was then extended to 18 September. Now, this date has been extended to 16 February 2020.