After near washout of the Winter Session, an all-party meeting reached a consensus that barring Goods and Services Tax (GST), six other Bills will be passed in the remaining period of the Session ending December 23.
The meeting, which was called by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, decided to take up discussion on price rise, intolerance, impact of flood and drought
on agriculture and developments in Arunachal Pradesh during the last three days of the Session.
According to sources, it was also decided that three Bills — the Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, the Whistleblowers Protection Amendment Bill and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill — will be discussed during the remaining period. These Bills may go to the select committee for further scrutiny, said some members attending the meet.
The members, however, decided to pass the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, the Appropriation Bills, the Anti-Hijacking Bill, the Atomic Energy Amendment Bill, the Commercial Courts Ordinance Bill and the Arbitration and Conciliation Amendment
Bill during the next week, sources said.
After the hour-long deliberations, Ansari merely said the meeting was “good”.
“There has been a very meaningful discussion in the meeting. A number of parties have expressed concern over Parliament not functioning. All of them decided that the House should function. It has been decided to pass the pending Government Bills even by sitting for late hours,” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters after the meeting.
As about the crucial constitutional amendment GST Bill, Naqvi said that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made an appeal to the Opposition to pass the Constitution Bill as well in the conducive atmosphere that has emerged after the meeting.
“But, I don’t think the main Opposition party has an agreement on this. They have not cleared their position,” the minister said.
leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “Nothing new was discussed at this meeting apart from what was discussed at the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting.”
When asked whether the Congress has agreed to passage of some Bills, he said that some of the Bills on which his party has committed support like the SC/ST Bill will be passed along with Appropriation Bill. “There is no decision on GST,” Azad said.
Naqvi said that members have agreed to compensate for the loss of legislative business in the House by working for extra hours during the last days.
Asked if the issue of giving more powers to the Rajya Sabha Chairman to act against members disrupting the House was discussed at the meeting, he replied in the negative.