The Lok Sabha today passed the 'The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 by voice vote. It seeks to conserve and protect wildlife through better management of protected areas.<br />” <br />” Replying to a four-hour long debate, Environment and Forest Minister Bhupender Yadav said, the NDA government is committed to carry out development activities along with protecting the environment. He said, the government works on the principle of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and is working towards the betterment of all wildlife species alongside humans.<br />” <br />” Yadav said if forests are people's heart, wetlands are kidneys and wetlands purify the environment and should be saved. He said a special chapter has been added to conform to the international treaty Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.<br />” <br />” Yadav said the bill makes amendments for better management of protected areas and s an explanation so as to provide for certain permitted activities such as grazing or movement of livestock, bona-fide use of drinking and household water by local communities.<br />” <br />” Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged that no opportunity was given to civil society to give their views on the proposed legislation.<br />” <br />” S T Hasan of Samajwadi Party urged the government to rename Nilgai as wild horse to overcome the taboo of killing the animal which is known to come in herds and destroy standing crops.<br />” <br />” Janardan Mishra of BJP too raised the issue of Nilgai and wild pigs detroying crops of farmers. Mishra also urged the government to provide adequate compensation to farmers if their crops are destroyed by wild animals.<br />” <br />” Initiating the debate on the bill, Congress member Pradyut Bardoloi hailed the role of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in conservation efforts. He highlighted that elephants need friendly atmosphere which should be ensured and they should not be transferred to unfriendly areas. He urged the government to adopt the recommendations of the parliamentary panel.<br />” <br />”Kirti Vardhan Singh of BJP asserted that India is leading the world in protecting environment. He said, this bill will be a step in that direction. He said, India is leading the world in the fight to protect the environment. He said, this enactment of this bill will put the country at the forefront of the battle to save the ecosystems of our planet.<br />” <br />”Participating in the debate, A Raja of DMK said, the minister's intention was laudable but the government's implementation still raises question marks.<br />” <br />”Earlier, Lok Sabha witnessed heated arguments between the Treasury and Opposition benches over the issue of farm loan waivers with Speaker Om Birla making an intervention and telling the members that advances under the Kisan Credit Card scheme are not written off.<br />” <br />” While asking a supplementary query, Supriya Sule of NCP sought to know whether the government has any plans to waive off the loans given to the farmers under the Kisan Credit Card scheme.<br />” <br />” Replying to the question, Parshottam Rupala, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister said, it was for the first time in last so many decades that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended the scheme to fishermen and dairy farmers as the KCC was earlier confined only to agricultural farmers. He said its main aim is to provide small farmers institutional credit up to 1.6 lakh rupees without any collateral.<br />” <br />” Besides, Rupala said, if a farmer repays the loan promptly, he or she would get three per cent interest subversion from the central government and some state governments too provide interest subversion up to four per cent to the KCC borrowers. So, virtually a farmer is not paying any interest on his loan if it is paid on time, he said.<br />” <br />” DMK members also protested strongly when Minister of State for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry L Murugan said, the Modi government has been pursuing welfare schemes as per the BJP election manifesto while some political parties and their state governments were not doing so. DMK members, led by its leader T R Baalu, protested the remarks made by Murugan.<br />” <br />” The Speaker then told the DMK members that the minister has neither named any political party nor any state and that they should not be offended.<br />” <br />” A strong demand was made in the Lok Sabha to name the new All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh after noted freedom fighter Pingali Venkayya. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Lok Sabha member from Machilipatnam Balashowry Vallabbhaneni recalled that Venkayya had designed the flag on which the national tricolour was based upon. Vallabbhaneni, a member of the YSR Congress Party, noted that 2nd August was the birth anniversary of Venkayya. He also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred to the contribution of Venkayya in his 'Mann ki Baat' radio programme on Sunday where he had appealed to citizens to hoist the tricolour in their homes from 2nd to 15th August to mark 75 years of Independence. He urged the government to name the AIIMS at Mangalagiri as Pingali Venkayya AIIMS. In 1916, Venkayya had published a book offering 30 designs of what could make the Indian flag. Venkayya's design for the national flag was finally approved by Mahatma Gandhi at the Vijayawada Congress in 1921.<br />” <br />” Dinesh Lal Yadav of BJP made a strong pitch in the Lok Sabha for the inclusion of Bhojpuri in the list of official languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.<br />” <br />” In his maiden speech, Yadav said Bhojpuri was spoken in 16 countries and the 'Geet Gawai' tradition has been recognised by the UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage at the request of Mauritius. He said Bhojpuri traces its roots to at least 1,000 years in history and so far 16 private member bills have been introduced in Parliament to include it in the eighth schedule.<br />” <br />”Gopal Shetty of BJP urged the government to take up the issue of pending visa applications, particularly of students, with embassies of foreign countries. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Shetty said several students, who had returned to India during the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war, were finding it difficult to get visas to pursue studies abroad.<br />” <br />”Shyam Singh Yadav of BSP demanded re-instatement of the Old Pension Scheme, contending that several pensioners were finding it difficult to make ends meet with the meagre payouts under the new pension scheme.<br />” <br />”T R Baalu of DMK raised the issue of recruitment by Neyveli Lignite Corporation based on Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering scores. He claimed that the corporation was in violation of the social justice and reservation policies making recruitments using GATE scores.<br />”<br />”Uday Pratap Singh of BJP sought appointment of administrative officers as Director and President of AIIMS, contending that hospital administration was a specialised subject. He said there were irregularities in administration of blood banks at AIIMS, Bhopal, where patients were given blood of the wrong blood groups. Singh claimed that there was also an instance at AIIMS-Bhopal where a patient was given HIV infected blood, which had led to his death.&nbsp;