7 Delhi bills still pending with Centre

Contrary to reports that the Centre had returned all the 17 bills passed by the Delhi Assembly to the AAP government, as many as seven proposed legislations are pending with the Union government. The remaining bills are reportedly stuck with different departments for their comments and clarifications on the issues raised by the Union home ministry.

The bills pending with the Centre are the Delhi School Education (Amend-ment) Bill, the Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill, the Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Delhi Amendment) Bill, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (Amendment) Bill, the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employ-ees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions (Delhi Amendment) Bill and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Delhi Amendment) Bill.

The status report of the 17 proposed legislations suggests that the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) (Amend-ment) Bill, 2015 has been withheld by President Pranab Mukherjee. The bill has to have the President’s assent before it can be enacted.

As far as the Delhi Netaji Subhas University of Technology Bill is concerned, after getting passed by the Assembly, it was sent for approval to lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung. The L-G, in turn, had referred the bill to the MHA for the President’s assent. Recently, Mr Jung’s secretary had sought certain clarifications on the bill. The file was finally sent to the principal secretary (education) for his comments on certain points on April 26. Since principal secretary (education) did not sent his comments, a reminder was sent to his department on June 21.

The L-G had sought certain clarifications to the Delhi (Right to Citizen to Time Bound Delivery of Services) Amendment Bill. The AAP government reportedly sent its comments to the L-G’s secretary on June 22. The Delhi Minimum Wages (Delhi) Amendment Bill too had been referred to the MHA for certain clarifications. The AAP government referred the matter to the labour department on June 27.

As far as five contentious bills related to hike in salaries and perks of city legislators is concerned, all of them had been sent to the lieutenant-governor, who in turn marked them to the MHA for seeking President’s assent. The MHA had sought certain clarifications on these bills from the Delhi Assembly Secretariat. A letter was sent to the secretary of the Delhi Legislative Assembly to supply the requisite information on June 22. But the Assembly Secretariat is yet to sent its clarifications on the matter.

Legislations Delhi School Education (Amendment) Bill Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Educat-ion (Delhi Amendment) Bill Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (Amendment) Bill Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions (Delhi Amendment) Bill Code of Criminal Procedure (Delhi Amendment) Bill