RTI, other bills face Rajya Sabha hurdle, will go to panel

New Delhi: Seven bills, including a law to amend the UPA’s flagship Right to Information Act and the controversial Triple Talaq Bill, might run into trouble in the Rajya Sabha with the Opposition parties demanding that these be sent to select committees or joint select committees for further scrutiny.

The other bills are the Code Wages Bill, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code Bill, the Inter-State River Waters Disputes (Amendment) Bill, the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Bill and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill.

The decision to seek sending of the bills to the select committee was taken at a meeting of Opposition parties in the Parliament House complex on Wednesday. The meeting was attended, among others, by Congress Parliamentary Party leader Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, TMC parliamentary leader Derek O’Brien, RJD leaders Manoj Jha and Misa Bharti, CPI’s D. Raja and Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and Anand Sharma.

Sources told this newspaper that the government was about to bring in the RTI Amendment Bill in the Upper House on Wednesday afternoon, but instead brought the Posco Amendment Bill after the Opposition parties told the Chair that they need to be sent to a select committee.

The government might meet the Opposition halfway by itself proposing that the RTI Bill be referred to a select committee, the sources indicated.

A resolution seeking that the bill be referred to a select committee has already been signed by around 16-17 parties, which includes fence-sitters like the Biju Janata Dal and the TRS.

Sources said the Opposition parties are also drafting a communication which can be sent to the presiding officers of both Houses on the need for integrity of Parliament and more time for the study and scrutiny of legislation. The communication has already been drafted and the parties are in the process of signing it.

Incidentally, the parties which were going big over the Kashmir-Trump controversy Tuesday decided to turn their focus on the bills on Wednesday.

“We have two issues in front of us — the bills and the Narendra Modi-Donald Trump issue. We decided to focus on the first,” a senior Opposition leader said. He added: “We took a political call.”