Parliament fails to approve even a single education bill

Not just the Lokpal bill, many important government legislations including education bills piloted by HRD minister Kapil Sibal and pending for over six months failed to get clearance of Parliament.

Updated on: Dec 30, 2011, 20:34:53 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Not just the Lokpal bill, many important government legislations including education bills piloted by HRD minister Kapil Sibal and pending for over six months failed to get clearance of Parliament.

Sibal had got three bills --- National Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Technology and Education Tribunal --- that were approved by the Lok Sabha in previous sessions. These bills were, however, not taken up for consideration in Rajya Sabha apparently because of paucity of time.

The same reason, however, did not apply for some other bills such as Factoring Regulation and National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions), which got approval of the Upper House within a week of getting assent of Lok Sabha.

The UPA government's minority position in Rajya Sabha has proven a bane for Sibal, who has four bills pending for approval in the Upper House. Sibal had tried to reach out to members of Parliament to get the bills approved in the last two months but the opposition was not convinced.

In addition, Sibal introduced two new bills in Rajya Sabha --- the Copyright (Amendment) and National Education and Research Bill, 2011 --- not without much drama.

Couple of members prevented Sibal from introducing the Copyright Bill in the first go citing conflict of interest as his son was a lawyer of a music company. However, he managed to introduce the bill another day amid the din. But, he had problems with introduction of the Architects (Amendment) Bill, which was vehemently opposed by the BJP.

Among the 17 bills approved by Parliament in the winter session, not a single bill was from the HRD ministry. When Parliament meets again for budget session in 2012, the HRD minister will have about half a dozen new bills ready for introduction, including Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Education Institutions, which has been approved by the Union Cabinet.

The government could not introduce reform legislation, the Pension Regulatory Bill, in Lok Sabha after its ally Trinamool Congress objected to certain clauses. The Judicial Accountability Bill was deferred by Lok Sabha after being considered for almost four hours because of paucity of time.

The Parliament, however, cleared the Cable Television Network (Amendment) Bill imposing new stringent rules for offending television channels and a bill to set up an academy for scientific and innovative research.

During the session, the government introduced 30 bills (27 in Lok Sabha and three in Rajya Sabha) out of which 17 were passed. Among the bills not passed was the Lokpal bill, which got approval of Lok Sabha on Tuesday but failed to get assent of Rajya Sabha as discussion remained inconclusive.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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