Budget session of Rajya Sabha cut short for passage of Land Ordinance Bill

New Delhi: The Budget session of Rajya Sabha was cut short on Saturday with the House being prorogued to pave the way for re-promulgation of the controversial Land Acquisition Ordinance. A statement from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said President Pranab Mukherjee has prorogued the 234th session of the Rajya Sabha.

The Upper House of Parliament was in the midst of Budget session and it went into recess from March 20 to meet again on April 20. The Budget session was to end on May 8 but with Rajya Sabha being prorogued, the session comes to an end for it. This paves way for the Union Cabinet to recommend to the President re-issuance of the Land Ordinance, which is otherwise lapsing on April 5.

The bill on Land Acquisition, which provides for amending the Act of 2013, was passed by Lok Sabha during the first half of Budget session but it got stuck due to opposition in Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA is woefully short of numbers.

Under the Constitution, at least one of the Houses has to be prorogued to enable the government to issue an Ordinance. The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs had on Friday decided to recommend prorogation of the Upper House with immediate effect.

The Land Acquisition Ordinance, which was promulgated in December last, will lapse on April 5 because it could not be converted into a law by Parliament. If the Ordinance is re-issued, it will carry the nine official amendments to the earlier Ordinance agreed by the government in Lok Sabha. It will also become the second Ordinance to be re-promulgated by the Narendra Modi government after the one on Coal block allocations.