'Govt forcing Taslima to leave country'

Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi accuses the UPA government of forcing Taslima Nasreen to leave the country by denying her access to medical treatment.

A BJP member on Wednesday accused the UPA government of forcing controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen to leave the country by denying her access to medical treatment and keeping her virtually under house arrest.

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Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi expressed concern over the problems being faced by Nasreen, who was forced to leave Kolkata and is now being forced to leave the country.

"She cannot meet anyone. She cannot go anywhere," he said describing her plight during the Zero Hour.

Through another Zero Hour notice, Santosh Bagrodia (Congress) demanded that Rajasthani language should he included in the eighth schedule of the Constitution so as to accord it official status.

Vijay Raghavan (CPI-M) demanded that use of natural vanilla in icecream should be made mandatory in Kerala to help cultivators.

Shahid Siddiqui (SP) raised the issue of attacks on migrant labourers in Manipur.

Supriya Sule (NCP) spoke about the cases of suicides by physically disabled children.

C Perumal (AIADMK) demanded that banks should give education loans to teachers so that they can take up higher studies.

Through Special Mentions, various matters pertaining to farmers were raised by B S Gnanadesikan (Cong), Kanimozhi (DMK), Sushma Swaraj (BJP), Varinder Singh Bajwa (Akali Dal) and Mabel Rebello (Cong).

AIADMK member C Perumal demanded waiving the limit of 60 per cent marks for availing post-matric scholarship by SC/ST students.