8 Bills introduced in House amid Opposition’s concerns

New Delhi: The government on Monday reintroduced eight bills in Lok Sabha despite the Opposition raising concerns over their possible misuse.

Out of these, three belong to the home ministry, while one each belong to consumer affairs, urban development, ministry for science and technology, culture and human resource development.

During the tabling of the bills, Opposition parties expressed concerns over the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill, the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment Bill), and the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Bill saying the provisions in these bills are open for misuse.

While opposing the introduction of the bill on the DNA technology Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged that the proposed law violates fundamental rig-hts as  the DNA of undertrials can be collected without court orders since it does not have a provision of consent on the storage of DNA data.

Responding to this, minister for science and technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan, said there is “no serious substance” in the concerns raised by them and the aim of legislation is to use the DNA technology for establishing the identity of missing persons, victims, offenders, undertrials and unknown deceased persons.

Opposition members expressed concerns over about the detention of citizens and cited examples of draconian laws such as the TADA and POTA. Seeking to allay all such concerns, Union minister of state for home G. Kgrishan Reddy said that the NDA government has zero tolerance on terrorism.