The Lok Sabha has referred the land acquisition bill to a Joint Committee of Parliament after continuous resistance from the Opposition. The bill had been promulgated to an ordinance twice and failed to get the bill cleared in Parliament. The government has referred it to a 30-member joint committee comprising MPs from both the Houses. The Joint Committee has been instructed to submit its report on the first day of Monsoon Session. The Congress, which has vociferously opposing the amendments introduced in the bill, was silent on the move to send the bill to the joint committee. Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi who has slammed the government for making changes to the UPA bill, did not touch upon the joint committee aspect.
Rajya Sabha named 10 members, including Digvijaya Singh of Congress and TMC's Derek O'Brien, to the Joint Committee. The other members from the Rajya Sabha are: Ram Narain Dudi (BJP), Jairam Ramesh (Cong), P L Punia (Cong), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), Sharad Yadav (JD-U), Sharad Pawar (NCP) and Rajpal Singh Saini (BSP). The members from the Lok Sabha who are on the joint panel include K V Thomas, Rajiv Satav (both Congress), Anand Rao Adsul (Shiv Sena), Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), B Mahtab (BJD), Mohammad Salim (CPI-M), Chirag Paswan (LJP) and S S Ahluwalia, Udit Raj, Anurag Thakur and Ganesh Singh (all BJP).
The name of senior BJP leader S S Ahluwlia is being heard for the Chairmanship of the joint committee of both Houses that will examine the land bill, but not confirmed. The government will bring a resolution in the Lok Sabha tomorrow to set up the joint committee. The resolution will then be taken to the Rajya Sabha for incorporating members of the Upper House.
Congress is divided on the question of sending the bill to a parliamentary committee. Some of the Congress Rajya Sabha members are not in favour of demanding or supporting the bill’s referral to the Joint Committee as the party had already taken the stand that it wanted the 2013 bill unchanged. “How can, then we be part of a committee and consider the amendments then,” a senior leader asked. Congress have been demanding the referral of many bills to the select committees and attacking the government for bypassing the standing committees. “How can we then oppose, when the government says, let the bill be considered by a parliamentary committee. We can fight within the panel and at the end give dissent notes. Then we can take the fight to the Parliament,” another leader said.
By Premji
