Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 13
The Lok Sabha today passed a bill to “rectify errors” in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Act, with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asserting that the retrospective provisions made in the Bill were not “original” in nature.
Are actors bad?
Why is Bollywood kept in a corner… as if they (actors) are some bad people who only do drugs. The entire community is being targeted. Supriya Sule, NCP leader
In a discussion on the bill, NCP’s Supriya Sule and Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant hit out at the Center for allegedly targeting Bollywood actors over the drug abuse issue and “abuse of authority” by officials dealing with related matters. flagged off.
Sule said it was “disappointing that the demands of the farmers were not debated, but a clerical change was being discussed”. “Why is Bollywood put in a corner… as if they (actors) are bad guys who only do drugs,” she said.
Sawant accused the BJP of trying to do politics on drug abuse during the Bihar assembly elections. “When the new (Maharashtra) government was formed, some incidents happened… the Sushant Singh Rajput case was cited. After his death, the whole story was drawn that entire Maharashtra is full of drug addiction…” he said.
The NDPS (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed by voice vote and some amendments introduced by opposition MPs were rejected by the House.
Responding to the concerns raised by the members that the provision of giving effect to the law with retrospective effect was violative of Article 20(1) of the Constitution, Sitharaman said that as per the opinion of the Solicitor General, the amendment may be allowed as it is not the original was not. , but “explanatory” in nature.