New Delhi: BJP on Tuesday asked its MPs to be present all day long in both Houses of Parliament for passage of crucial bills including the Land bill coming up in Lok Sabha and the Coal and Mines bills in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The party has already issued a whip to all its MPs for ensuring their presence in both the lower and Upper Houses all through the week, upto Saturday, as crucial bills seeking to replace Ordinances promulgated by the government have been lined up during the week.
Stating this at the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting in New Delhi, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told the MPs about the business conducted during the last week and that proposed during this week while seeking cooperation of all to ensure passage of crucial bills. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present at the meeting but did not speak.
Rural Development Minister Birender Singh gave details of the proposed amendments in the Land bill to be brought by the government. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the members that the estimates of corruption made out by the CAG were proving true as auction of 32 of the total 204 coal blocks had yielded around Rs two lakh crores alone. Similarly, he said, the auction of Spectrum had so far yielded Rs 94,000 crore revenue, adding that "Congress is trying to cover up its corruption by providing illogical theories".
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi later said the opposition will not be allowed to stop government from carrying forward its development agenda. "It is unfortunate that a dejected and defeated opposition is trying to stop the government's development agenda for the welfare of poor, youth and other sections of society. They would not be allowed to stop the development agenda," he said.
Naqvi said on the Prime Minister Modi's directive, party MPs will be briefed about various Ministries by the respective Ministers and in this regard Power Minister Piyush Goyal will make a detailed presentation on the Power sector this evening. The Minister said on the Adarsh Gram Yojna, MPs were told to handle it on priority and take forward the scheme.
Government had on Monday introduced the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill 2015 in Lok Sabha, discussion on which is underway and the bill is likely to be put for voting this evening. Similarly, the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015 and the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2015 have been listed for business in Rajya Sabha today.
The crucial Insurance Amendment Bill seeking to raise the FDI ceiling in insurance sector to 49 per cent from current 26 per cent limit is also likely to be taken up in Rajya Sabha later this week, they said. According to sources, the party issued the whip to ensure passage of all the crucial bills, seeking to replace the related ordinances promulgated by Government recently. "A whip has been issued to all party Members in both the Houses for the entire week up to Saturday," a top BJP source told PTI. Government is not taking any chances and wants early passage of all its bills seeking to replace Ordinances even as the opposition stands adamant in opposing the proposed legislations.
