The Lok Sabha on Wednesday will resume discussion on election reforms, with Home Minister Amit Shah scheduled to reply.
Raising questions about the impartiality of the Election Commission, the Opposition demanded a return to paper ballots and an amendment to the law governing the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners. They also pointed out loopholes in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls being conducted in several states.
The Opposition alleged that the Election Commission was working at the behest of the BJP government, creating mistrust and a lack of transparency in the election process. Speaking on election reforms, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of duplicate voters in the electoral rolls. He questioned the Election Commission about the SIR in Bihar, alleging that 1,20,000 duplicate voter photos exist in the state’s electoral list.
Intervening in the discussion yesterday, Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said that Special Intensive Revisions of electoral rolls were conducted multiple times during the Congress regime, but the Opposition is now raising questions over the exercise.
He lauded the country’s voting structure, stating that every citizen has had equal voting rights since Independence.
In today’s Lok Sabha proceedings, several union Ministers are also scheduled to lay papers on the Table.
Rao Inderjit Singh will present documents on behalf of the Ministry of Planning.
Dr. Jitendra Singh is slated to lay papers for multiple key departments, including the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Department of Atomic Energy, and the Department of Space. itin Prasada will represent the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani will table papers for the Ministry of Communications. Satish Chandra Dubey will lay papers on behalf of the Ministry of Coal and the Ministry of Mines, and Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya will present documents for the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
Alongside the ministers, the Standing Committee on Finance is scheduled to present its Final Action Taken Statements in both Hindi and English on recommendations made in its recent reports. These include the 19th to 24th Reports (18th Lok Sabha) covering Action Taken on Demands for Grants (2025–26) across multiple departments of the Ministry of Finance, including Economic Affairs, Expenditure, Public Enterprises, Revenue, Corporate Affairs, Planning (NITI Aayog), Statistics and Programme Implementation, and Financial Services.
In addition, the Standing Committee on Coal, Mines and Steel will present its 15th Report for 2025–26.
The report will focus on “Expediting and Simplifying the Environment and Forest Clearance Process for Coal Mining Projects” and highlight steps taken and recommendations to streamline approvals while mainitaining environmenatl safeguards.
