The Government has developed cold feet on taking Ordinance route to implement a slew of anti-graft measures pushed by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. The Union Cabinet on Friday shelved the proposed Ordinances after a note of caution sounded by the law Ministry.
However, the Government went ahead with announcing a host of poll sops ahead of the lok Sabha elections. Sources said the Ordinances on Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill and Right of Citizens for
Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill — both dealing with corruption — were on the agenda.
Along with these, the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, Rights of Persons with Disability Bill, Security laws (Amendment) Bill and Delhi High Court Act (Amendment) Bill were also on the agenda.
The law Ministry had sent notes with all the Ordinances on whether the reasons given by various Ministries to promulgate the executive orders were acceptable to the Union Cabinet. The law Ministry pointed out that the Ordinances will have to withstand judicial scrutiny and legal questions will be raised about them since the present lok Sabha will not meet again to consider them.
However, the Cabinet gave its go-ahead to a host of poll sops enlarging the list of similar populist measures announced in the recent past. These include increase in dearness allowances (DA), mandating the Seventh Pay Commission, setting up a number of Kendriya Vidyalas (KVs) and a National Institute of Design (NID) for Seemandhra. The Cabinet also raised the working days under MGNREGA benefiting particularly tribals.
The Cabinet raised dearness allowance (DA) to 100 per cent from 90 per cent, benefiting its 50 lakh employees and 30 lakh pensioners. The new hike in DA would be effective from January 1 this year. This increase in the dearness allowance by the UPA-2 Government comes ahead of the imposition of the model code of conduct by the Election Commission. This is the second double digit DA hike in a row after it had announced a hike of 10 per cent to 90 per cent in September 2013.
Further to woo 44 lakh pensioners including widow, the Cabinet approved the proposal to ensure Rs 1,000 minimum monthly pension under a scheme of retirement fund body EPFO. Earlier the Centre had approved the implementation of ‘One Rank, One Pay’ (OROP) policy which the Defence personnel have been demanding for over three decades.
The Cabinet also mandated the 7th Pay Commission for revising salaries of over 50 lakh Central Government employees and remuneration of 30 lakh pensioners. The Commission will make its recommendations within 18 months of the date of its constitution.
The Centre also announced host of educational schemes by approving 54 new Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), a National Institute of Design besides amending governance for Nalanda University, which was drawn into some controversy.
The Government also gave its nod to bring some amendments to the Nalanda University (Amendment) Bill, 2013 as suggested by a Parliamentary Standing Committee to streamline the governance structure of the proposed university in Bihar.
In a bid to woo tribals electorates benefiting about 14 lakh families, the Government raised the workdays under MNREGA from 100 to 150 mandays.
The Government also raised the annual quota of subsidised cooking gas allowing the consumers to buy more than one subsidised cylinder in a month. The government had raised the annual cap on supply of cheaper lPG from nine to 12 cylinders of 14.2-kg each on January 30.
The Government cleared the Rs 6,284.20 crore 6-laning project of Eastern Peripheral Expressway to accelerate development in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and ease traffic in the National Capital. The expressway connects NHs of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, bypassing Delhi.
The Cabinet also cleared a proposal of the Election Commission to raise expenditure limits for lok Sabha elections to a maximum of Rs 70 lakh and a minimum of Rs 54 lakh, allowing candidates to spend more on their poll campaigns.
The EC has proposed to raise expenditure limits for Assembly elections, with a maximum of Rs 28 lakh and a minimum of Rs 20 lakh in North Eastern and hill States. Among the Union Territories, the limit will go up from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 70 lakh in Delhi, while it will be uniform at Rs 54 lakh for all other UTs.