NEW DELHI, Feb 19: The government is gearing up for the Budget session of Parliament, starting from Monday, in which it has to bring in bills to replace several ordinances related to crucial economic reforms and some controversial issues like coal block allocation and land acquisition. It was a rough sailing for the government in the Rajya Sabha in the winter session as the it does not have a majority in the House of Elders because of which it could not push through some of the key bills.
Though the opposition numbers are unchanged since the last session, they were reported to be working out a more aggressive strategy in the wake of the Delhi Assembly elections results in which the ruling BJP was trampled by the nascent Aam Admi Party(AAP) of Arvind Kejriwal.
A buoyed up opposition would be more vociferous and vocal in questioning the government policies, especially on its performance to fulfill its election promises. According to reports, the possibility of a joint session being convened to pass bills such as the Insurance Bill and Coal Mining Allocation Bill was not ruled out.
Since May last year, the government has used the ordinance route 10 times to push key policy changes due to its lack of majority in the upper house.
The Opposition parties are likely to meet ahead of the session to decide their joint strategy to block bill relating to land acquisition while Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has called an all party meeting ahead of the session on Sunday in a bid to reach out to the Opposition for smooth functioning of the Lok Sabha. The government is working on more than 20 pieces of legislation, including two anti-corruption bills and six others to replace ordinances.
The bills were finalised on last Monday at a meeting called by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani and secretaries of various ministries.
(AGENCIES)
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