Govt has hands full in the House

Keeping its options open to refer the goods and services tax bill and the land acquisition bill for parliamentary review, the government on Monday will bring the two bills in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, respectively.

Keeping its options open to refer the goods and services tax bill and the land acquisition bill for parliamentary review, the government on Monday will bring the two bills in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, respectively.

On the same day, the government also wants to get the black money bill passed in the Lower House. With just three days left in this session, the Centre’s agenda has a list of 11 bills for introduction, consideration and passing for Monday.

Former PM Manmohan Singh on Saturday pitched for a review of the GST bill, saying, “Some of the amendments brought by the government are not good for the economy.” Government sources told HT that the BJP managers had initially considered a 30-member Joint Committee with 20 members from the Lok Sabha and the rest from the Rajya Sabha on the contentious land bill. A section of the government, however, wants the panel to be of around 18 members with 12 members from the Lower House and 6 members from the Upper House.

In any case, the BJP will try to retain almost half of the slots for its own party MPs besides bagging the chairman’s position in the panel for land bill. “Our first effort would be to pass the land bill, if we see there is no chance for the passage of the bill, we will see what the majority of the members want,” parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu told HT.

A joint panel would be the only way through which the ruling side can retain majority in the committee to review the bill. The standing committee on rural development is headed by AIADMK while any select panel of Rajya Sabha, where the bill faces stiff resistance, will have majority opposition members.

Among the other bills, the amendments to the prevention of corruption act and the whistleblowers bill, the national waterways bill, The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment) Bill are priority for the government.