Rajya Sabha clears NCT Bill

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 23

The Rajya Sabha, which remained deadlocked over the issue of faith conversion for most of the past few sessions, today cleared the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second (Amendment) Bill 2014 before it was adjourned sine die. Setting aside their differences, members from all sides joined hands to pass the legislation to benefit lakhs of slum dwellers facing threat of demolition.
However, the Opposition benches refused to allow the government to transact any other legislative business, leaving it with no other option but to consider the ordinance route for the pending reforms Bills, including the Insurance laws (Amendment) Bill 2008, which could not be moved in the Upper House despite repeated efforts.
Top government functionaries said the Ordinance route was an option they may consider. On whether an Ordinance will be able to generate as much enthusiasm and attract investments (the real aim of the legislation), they said it (Ordinance) would at least be able to generate “market sentiments” and assure that “BJP government’s intentions were good”.
Notably, as many as six legislations, including the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill 2014, passed by the Lok Sabha, could not be taken up by the Rajya Sabha due to disruptions.
In fact, because of the BJP government’s minority status there, the Rajya Sabha saw interruptions during 16 of the 22 sittings, while only brief interruptions were witnessed during five sittings of the Lok Sabha in the same period.
As per Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu, while the Lok Sabha passed 18 Bills, the Rajya Sabha could clear only 12 Bills during this period.
There were disruptions first on the name of Hyderabad airport and then Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s “unparliamentary comments” and the faith conversions issue.
The House witnessed disruptions and adjournment for several days with Opposition demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply on the religious conversion issue which the government did not cede.