Parliament to speed up work, will take up 18 Bills in 3 days

With only three sittings left next week for the current winter session and hardly any legislative business transacted in the Rajya Sabha so far, Friday’s all-party meeting convened by House Chairman has raised expectations of smooth passage of some of the pending Bills during the tail end of this session. 

A total of 18 Bills for which the Business Advisory Committee of Rajya Sabha has allotted a total of 43.50 hrs for discussion is on the unfinished agenda of the House. Of these, the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Bill, 2015, The Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Atomic Energy (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Appropriation Bills pertaining to Supplementary Demands for Grants (General) for 2015-16 and Excess Demands for Grants (General) for 2012-13, were all passed by the Lok Sabha during this session and The Whistle Blower Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015, The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill,2015, as passed by the Lok Sabha earlier and The Child Labour (Protection and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2012, on which the Standing Committee presented its report in December 2013 will come up for consideration. 

The Upper House is also likely to discuss next week the role of Arunachal Pradesh Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa as agreed to by the Government at Friday’s meeting besides growing intolerance endangering the unity and diversity of the country and prices of essential commodities and food grains, as demanded by Opposition parties including the Congress. 

The Lok Sabha, where proceedings having progressed almost smoothly, will take up for consideration next week The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and The National Waterways (Amendment) Bill, 2015 for which discussion time of two and three hours respectively has been allotted.

There will also be a short duration discussion on the situation in Nepal and the state of Indo-Nepal relations and resumed discussion on Sustainable Development Goals, which was discussed partly during the last session. —UNI

During the current session that started on November 26, 12 Bills have been passed (listed below) by the Lok Sabha; six new Bills have been introduced 

Commitment to Constitutionon 125th birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar