Voting on IDRA Bill tomorrow
Insurance staff strike today

NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (PTI, UNI) — The IRDA will be put to vote in the Lok Sabha on Thursday and will be introduced in the Rajya Sabha the next day, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan said here today.

The "Lok Sabha Speaker has directed that there should be a six-hour discussion in the House tomorrow and the Finance Minister (Yashwant Sinha) will reply to the debate on Thursday," he told reporters.

Earlier, the Lok Sabha today took up for discussion the controversial Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Bill, 1999, seeking to open up the insurance business to the private sector amidst protest by the Left and other parties.

Moving the Bill for consideration of the House, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, said the Bill would provide for establishment for an authority for the protection of the interests of the holders of insurance policies and also promote and ensure orderly growth of the insurance industry in the country.

Mr Sinha said opening up of the insurance sector would bring the much-needed funds for developing infrastructure. At the same time, he said, enough protection had been taken to protect the domestic players.

The Bill was introduced amidst protests by the Left parties on the last day of the first session of the 13th Lok Sabha.

Mr Kirit Somayya (BJP), while initiating the debate, said certain precautions were necessary for safeguarding the country’s interests. He cautioned against the possibility of insurance companies enhancing their stake by more than 26 per cent indirectly besides checking the capital market manipulation by the new entrants.

Mrs Gita Mukherjee (CPI), opposing the Bill, said that the vital sector should not be opened up to the multinational companies as there was possibility of funds being deployed for speculative purposes rather than socially relevant sectors.

A last-ditch attempt by the Left parties to block consideration of the Bill failed with the Deputy Speaker, Mr P.M. Sayeed, ruling that its consideration could not be kept pending indefinitely till the constitution of Parliament’s Petitions Committee.

There was procedural wrangle for nearly 30 minutes even as Mr Sinha rose to seek permission to take up for consideration the Bill before Mr Sayeed overruled the objections of the CPM members, saying the members can voice the grievances against the Bill inside the House.

Both Mr Basudeb Acharya and Mr Rupchand Pal contended that the House cannot take up consideration of the Bill till the matter is taken up by the Petitions Committee. Mr Pal had circulated a petition against the provisions of the Bill appended by over 1.5 crore people to MPs under the rules of the House. The rules of the House clearly stipulate that the petition stand referred to the committee and the House cannot take up consideration of the Bill till the matter is disposed of by the committee.

Both members took exception to the delay in the constitution of the Petition Committee. Mr Pal however saw a design in delaying the constitution of the committee.

Mr Somnath Chatterjee CPM parliamentary party leader, said there was nothing wrong in delaying the consideration of the Bill by a week till the committee considered it. But with Mr Sayeed’s ruling the House took up for consideration the insurance Bill.

Meanwhile, the Congress today indicated that it would support the controversial insurance Bill if the government guaranteed that the resources generated from the opening up of the sector would be channelised for development of the country’s infrastructure and helping the social sector.

The party’s Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, Mr P.R. Dasmunshi, told reporters that the party would "go ahead" with the measure if the government gave "legally enforceable" guarantee that infrastructure and social sectors were benefited by the opening up of the insurance sector to private and foreign investors.

Stating that the party was eliciting views from its members and would come out with its course of action by tomorrow, he said, "we shall not not deviate from our commitment on economic reforms. We do not have double standards like the BJP."

Replying to questions, he, however, admitted there were differences in the party on the stand to be adopted on the Bill.

However, a senior party MP, Mr Vayalar Ravi, told reporters separately there was division in the party on the issue as one section wanted the Bill to be referred to the Joint Select Committee of Parliament, while another was for its passage.

In a related development, over two lakh insurance employees all over the country will go on strike tomorrow in protest against the IRDA Bill, which was taken up for discussion in Parliament today.

However, banks and financial institutions will function normally since their unions have yet to take a stand on the issue despite the fact that their leaders had come out in support of their colleagues in the insurance companies at a joint press conference on November 28,1999.

"All employees of the Life Insurance Corporation of India, General Insurance Corporation and its four subsidiaries will observe a day’s strike tomorrow in support of our demand for dropping of the IRDA Bill’’, Joint Secretary of the All-India LIC Employees Federation B.S. Rawat told UNI.

The insurance employees had also struck work on October 29 after the controversial Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha.