NDA braces up for stormy session
To highlight mishandling of Orissa relief
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 28- The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) today braced up for a stormy winter session of Parliament, beginning tomorrow, and proposed to highlight the mishandling of relief work in cyclone-devastated Orissa by the state Congress government.

With the Congress indicating that the Bofors issue would boom once again in Parliament, this time over the inclusion of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s name in the chargesheet filed by the CBI, the NDA leaders, who met over lunch at Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s 7, Race Course residence here discussed at length the government agenda to be taken up in the winter session of Parliament and deliberated on how to ensure the smooth passage of a host of Bills, including those on security and finance.

Major Bills coming up for introduction include the Women’s Reservation Bill seeking to provide 33 per cent quota for women in the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha, the Lok Pal Bill, legislation on granting statehood to Chhatisgarh, Vananchal and Uttarakhand, and the IPC Amendment Bill providing for death sentence for rape.

On the economic front, apart from the crucial Insurance Regulatory Development Authority Bill and the Prevention of Money Laundering Bill, seven other Bills dealing with the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights were on the priority list as these were time-bound.

Talking to newspersons after the 90-minute meeting, NDA convener, George Fernandes said the situation in Orissa dominated the proceedings.

The leaders expressed unhappiness over the Orissa Government’s decision to withdraw the Army a week ago as also its non-cooperation with volunteers carrying out relief operations.

Though the Orissa Government has conveyed that the situation in the state was well under control and no outside help was needed, the NDA was of the view that the Army still had a role to play in providing relief in three districts of Puri, Bhadrak and Jajpur.

Expressing concern at the magnitude of devastation in Orissa, Mr Fernandes said the leaders were satisfied with the Centre’s decision to treat the Orissa cyclone as a national calamity of rare severity. The Orissa Government has, however, charged the government with failing to declare the cyclone as a national calamity.

However, in what appeared to be a strategy to blunt the criticism of the Congress, the NDA passed a resolution in which it commended the government’s decision to treat the Orissa cyclone as a national calamity of rare severity as visualised in the report of the Tenth Finance Commission and appealed to all state governments, public sector enterprises, corporate sector and citizens to help Orissa deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Mr Fernandes said the NDA was briefed about the task force constituted by the Prime Minister to oversee the relief and rehabilitation work. He said the Orissa Government, however, did not cooperate with the task force and it had conveyed to the Centre that outside help was only required for building infrastructure, including houses.

Mr Fernandes said the meeting felt it was improper of the state government to suspend the Relief Commissioner who was responsible for supervising relief activities. He said it was a matter of concern as people in the state were still experiencing a lot of hardship.

The NDA proposed to have a discussion on the Orissa cyclone in both Houses of Parliament, he added.

The meeting was attended among others by BJP chief Kushabau Thakre, Home Minister, L.K.Advani, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mr Pramod Mahajan, Union Power Minister P.R.Kumaramangalam, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (SAD), Mr Naveen Patnaik (BJD), Mr T.R.Balu (DMK), Mr Nitish Kumar (Samata Party), Mr R.K.Hegde (Lok Shakti), Mr Vaiko (MDMK), Dr Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Mr Sudipt Bandopadhyay (Trinamool Congress), Mr Naresh Agarwal (Loktantrik Congress), Mr Sukhram (Himachal Vikas Party) and Ms Maneka Gandhi (Independent).