Rajya Sabha to do overtime to debate and clear many pending bills
By TIOL News Service
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NEW DELHI, MAR 14, 2015: FROM next week the Rajya Sabha will sit beyond 7 pm to take up the Governments's legislative and other business. The upper house is still to take up for consideration and returning the Appropriation Bills relating to the Demands for Grants on Account (Railways) for 2015-16 and Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2014-15. Discussion on Railway Budget has almost been concluded. Rajya Sabha will also take up discussion on General Budget for 2015-16 and related Appropriation Bills after they are passed by Lok Sabha next week.
Another important business the Rajya Sabha is to take up next week will be consideration and passsing of the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015 and the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2015 as passed by Lok Sabha and to be reported by the respective Select Committees. The two Select Committees are to submit their reports on the respective Ordinance Replacement Bills by March 18, 2015. The two Ordinances will lapse on April 5, 2015 and need to be replaced by the Bills before the said date. As per the schedule announced, the Parliament is to be adjourned on March 20, 2015. The third Ordinance replacement Bill related to Land Acquisition is still to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha.
The Business Advisory Committee of Rajya Sabha has alloted one hour for further discussion on the Mines Bill, two hours for the Coal Mines Bill next week and ten hours for General Budget.
Of the six Ordinances to be replaced by Bills, Rajya Sabha has so far passed three Bills relating to Amendment of Citizenship Act, The Motor Vehicles Act and the Insurance Laws. Lok Sabha has passed all the six Ordinance Replacement Bills.
The Government has also proposed consideration and passing of The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and The Regional Rural Banks (Amendment) Bill, 2015 in Rajya Sabha next week.
For the next week in the Lok Sabha, the Government has proposed discussion on General Budget for 2015-16 and introduction, consideration and passing of Appropriation Bills relating to the Demands for Grants on Account for 2015-16, Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2014-15 and Excess Demands for Grants for 2012-13. For this, twelve hours time has been alloted.
In addition, the Government has also proposed consideration and passing of The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Orders (Amendment) Bill, 2015 as passed by Rajya Sabha this session, The Warehousing Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2014, next week.
During the first three weeks of the Budget Session, a total of ten Bills have been passed. These include six Ordinance replacement Bills by the Lok Sabha while Rajya Sabha has passed three of them relating to citizenship, motor vehicles and insurance sector besides the Constitution (Schedules Castes) Orders (Amendment) Bill, 2015. Lok Sabha has passed the Railway Budget.
A novel feature of the current Budget Session has been that for the first time, new legislative proposals have been introduced in one house (Lok Sabha) while related Bills were pending in the other house (Rajya Sabha). Ordinances replacement Bills relating to allocation of coal mines, introduction of e-rikshaws and hiking FDI in insurance sector were introduced in Lok Sabha even as related Bills were pending in the upper house. When this issue was raised in Rajya Sabha, the Deputy Chairman has ruled that there was no restriction in doing so.
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