The Government on Monday introduced Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill and Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill in lok Sabha in place of Ordinances issued to facilitate coal blocks auction and plying of e-rickshaws. The lok Sabha also passed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2015 was introduced by Coal Minister Piyush Goyal who insisted that the Government was forced to go in for the Ordinance in the wake of the apex court order cancelling allocation of certain coal blocks and issuing directions with regard to them.
Opposing the introduction of the Bill, BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab said the Centre had taken certain “subjective” decisions on the issue. He complained that his State Odisha was not taken into confidence by the Centre while deciding on “regulated” and “non-regulated” mines in the State despite Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik writing to the Prime Minister. At the same time, Mahtab made it clear that his party was not against auctioning of the coal mines.
The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2015 introduced by Minister of State for Road Transport P Radhakrishnan, will replace an Ordinance promulgated in January in this regard. An earlier Bill to regularise e-rickshaws was passed by the lok Sabha in the Winter Session but as it was stuck in the Rajya Sabha, the Government issued an Ordinance. The earlier Bill has since been withdrawn.
The Government had in October last notified the rules for plying of e-rickshaws and made driver’s licence mandatory for operating them and limiting their speed to 25 kmph. The new rules provide that e-rickshaws will be allowed to carry four passengers and 40 kg luggage while e-carts would transport goods up to 310 kg.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2015, passed in lok Sabha in the evening seeks to remove disparity between Persons of Indian Origin cardholders and Overseas Citizens of India cardholders. Intervening in the dabate preceding passage of the Bill, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Ordinance was promulgated to amend the Citizenship Act as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a commitment in the US and Australia that the two cards will be merged before January 9, the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa.
A Bill was introduced in the lok Sabha in the previous Session but it could be passed, Singh said defending the Ordinance. Replying to the debate, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju made it clear that India does not have the concept of ‘dual citizenship’ though most of the countries are veering towards that concept. He said the PIO and OCI cardholders are “close to citizenship status”. He clarified that the amendment bill does not deal with the issue of refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh and a task force set up in September last is looking into the issue.