First leg of Budget Session has been fruitful
It is a matter of satisfaction that Parliament has conducted crucial business and passed important legislations in the first leg of the Budget Session. Among other things, it adopted the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill. The passage of the two Bills in the Rajya Sabha on the last day of the House’s sitting before it went for a month-long break is significant for both political and developmental reasons. The opposition parties, barring the left, broke ranks with the Congress to vote along with the Treasury Bench in favour of the Bills (the Janata Dal-United tacitly backed them by walking out).
The development demonstrates that many opposition parties are not willing to be hostage to the obstructionist attitude of the Congress, which is determined to block Bills for the sake of blocking. While it is true that the Congress went along with the Government on the insurance Bill, the reasons it came up with in not supporting the mines and minerals as well as the coal Bills were flimsy and exposed the party’s discomfort with the reform agenda the Government is determined to pursue. Representatives of other parties, however, saw merit in the Bills, because the provisions, for the first time, allowed for large funds to flow into the States’ coffers. Through the mines and minerals Bill, for instance, the States would be allowed to directly auction mines and minerals and give concessions to the successful bidders without taking prior permission of the Centre.
According to the Government’s estimate, more than `1.5 lakh crore would accrue to the mineral-rich States by way of this new process. The States can also utilise one-third of the royalty so collected to spend on the welfare of the residents of the areas where mining takes place. The passage of the Bill opens up the possibility of full-scale mining in States such as Goa and Karnataka that had been most affected when the Supreme Court clamped down on mining because large-scale illegalities had surfaced there. The move had broken the back of the economies of these States, and so now they can breathe easy. The adoption by Parliament of the coal Bill clears the way to amend the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act and allow mining companies to sell coal in the open market. This opens up fresh vistas for States to collect larger sums of money and use them for developmental activities. A seething Congress has slammed the parties which backed the Government, saying churlishly that the Opposition had been “compromised”. What that compromise has been, the party has failed to substantiate.
But this show of unity between the opposition parties and the ruling combine does not as yet extend to the controversial Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015. While the Government plans to bring this Bill before the Rajya Sabha once Parliament re-convenes, the battle lines remain as fiercely drawn as before. The Government will have to indulge in a Herculean effort to achieve an agreement here. The Congress, like the others, has dug in its heels and wants the non-starter 2013 Act to remain unchanged. This is avoidable obstinacy.