The government will try to push for the passage of six bills to replace ordinances in the first half of the Budget Session of Parliament beginning February 23.
The government will try to push for the passage of six bills to replace ordinances in the first half of the Budget Session of Parliament beginning February 23. A meeting of secretaries of various departments, convened by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, on Friday decided that the main thrust of the government would be the passage of six bills on ordinances -- land acquisition, e-rickshaws, FDI in insurance sector, mines and minerals, coal and Citizenship Act -- which were promulgated in the last one-and-half months.
While the ordinances on land acquisition and e-rickshaws are fresh, bills on the remaining four ordinances are pending in Parliament. The government will utilise the second part of the Budget Session beginning April 20 to push for the passage of various pending and proposed bills, sources said after the meeting. A total of 66 bills, including nine in Rajya Sabha, are pending.
Among the bills the government proposes to introduce are Amendments to the Whistleblowers Protection Act, The Rights to Services and Grievances Redress Bill, Amendment to the Inter-state Water Dispute Act, The Carriage by Air (Amendment) Bill, The Recognition of New Systems of Medicine Bill, Amendment to the National Commission for Women Act, and the Andra Pradesh Reorganisation (Second Amendment) Bill, the sources said. They said during the one-hour long meeting in Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, officials examined the status of the progress in respect of the action to be taken for replacing these ordinances with bills.
"All ministries concerned are on track doing the needful for introduction of bills replacing the ordinances in the first half of the Budget Session," a source in the Ministry said.
The government is especially under pressure to legislate the ordinances on insurance sector and the coal sector so that the new systems in place for attracting FDI in insurance and for auctioning of coal blocks are not disturbed.
As per the rules, an ordinance has to be converted into legislation within 42 days of commencement of Parliament session or else it will lapse. Once promulgated, an ordinance can be re-promulgated a second time.
A day after President Pranab Mukherjee voiced his objection to the 'ordinance route', senior ministers had on January 20 met to discuss how the recent ordinances can be replaced by legislative action in the Budget Session. After the ministers' meeting, the Cabinet Committee of Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) had met the next day and decided the schedule of the Budget Session. Friday's meeting is a follow-up to earlier deliberations on the ordinance issue, the sources said.
In the session, the General Budget will be presented on February 28, which will be preceded by the Economic Survey on February 27 and the Railway Budget on February 26. The first part of this session will continue till March 20. The second part will commence after a month-long recess from April 20. The session will conclude on May 8. While the first part of the session is to have 26 sittings, the second part will have 19 sittings.
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