Our suggestions left out: Oppn

In the second and very stormy meeting of the Select Committee on insurance bill, members from the Trinamool, Left and Congress locked horns with chairman Chandan Mitra over several amendments that were reportedly left out of the clause-wise document circulated for the panel’s consideration. The amendments that were left out, members claimed, favoured maintaining the status quo.

As charges were traded, Mitra told members that the Bill’s final draft would be readied by Friday and discussed in the panel’s last meeting on Monday. Requests for a postponement of the meeting drew a blank, prompting CPM member P Rajeev to compare Mitra’s behaviour to that of Hitler, said sources. TMC’s Derek O’ Brien accused Mitra of “bulldozing” the Bill. “The chairman threw all Parliamentary norms out of the window and acted as a BJP member,” said a member of the committee.

Members alleged that all amendments that opposed disinvestment or pointed out possible glitches in the plan were kept out of the clause-by-clause list. Rajeev, Derek and Congress’s J D Seelam pointed out the missing amendments. Sources said Derek questioned the government’s contention that Rs 26,950 crores FDI would come in in the next five years if the cap if increased, pointing out that in the last 14 years since the cap became 26 per cent, only Rs 8000 crore had come to the country.

Incidentally, the Bill is likely to be cleared by both Houses of Parliament as Congress has decided to support it.