Govt introduces 3 Bills, Opposition flays it for rushing

New Delhi: Even as the government extended the current Parliament session by a week, it gave a push to its legislative agenda by introducing three Bills—an Inter-State River Water Tribunals Bill, a Bill to repeal 58 old laws and a Bill to amend the Companies Act in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.  

While the Opposition supported all the three Bills “in-principle”, they opposed the introduction of the inter-state River waters bill on the ground that state governments were not consulted in the matter and the two other Bills on the ground that adequate time was not given for preparing the Bills.

Leader after leader from the Opposition ranks demanded that the mandatory two days time should be given to the Opposition to study the Bill.  

To this, Speaker Om Birla, assured that he would ensure this from the next session.

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Narendra Modi government has already repealed 1,458 old and archaic Acts and the move to scrap 58 more laws is a part of the same exercise.

He also rejected the Opposition’s claim that members were not given adequate time to study the Bill.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said the Bill was discussed in detail in the Business Advisory Committee, which has members from all major parties.

However, BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab came to the government’s rescue and said it has stuck to the agenda decided in business advisory committee.

Bills were distributed among members as a supplementary agenda by previous governments, something which has not happened yet, he said.