The Rajya Sabha on Saturday passed two legislations, The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill 2020 and The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill provides for up to five years in jail for those attacking doctors and healthcare workers fighting the COVID-19 outbreak or during any situation akin to the current pandemic.
Speaking on the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the bill was required to prevent offences against healthcare professionals.
“Many healthcare workers including doctors, paramedics were insulted in some form or the other, due to stigma attached to COVID-19. Centre government acted on this situation found that there was a need for a law, a prohibitory mechanism against such incidents,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said.
However, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O’Brien termed the Bill an attempt to encroach states’ constitutionally assigned functioning.
Speaking while the discussions on the bill were underway, the TMC MP said that Bengal already had laws to deal with prevention of violence against doctors and healthcare workers.
“You thought of healthcare workers now? Bengal has Medicare Service Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property Act 2009. What happens to it? Bill is an attempt to encroach states’ constitutionally assigned functioning,” O’Brien said.
The Upper House had earlier passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Second Amendment) Bill.
Moving the IBC Bill in Rajya Sabha Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “IBC is such a critical part of business now. On the NPAs of scheduled commercial banks, I just want to highlight how IBC is actually serving the purpose. The priority is to keep companies to be a going concern rather than liquidate them.”
The Bill mandates that a default on repayments from March 25, the day when a nationwide lockdown began to curb the spread of coronavirus, would not be considered for initiating insolvency proceedings for at least six months.
The upper house which saw minimal disruptions during the last two days passed four Bills together with the controversial Farmers bill and Homeopathy bill in Friday.
