Employment guarantee bill trapped in House deadlock

A number of bills will be passed by both Houses of Parliament in the absence of the Opposition over the next few days but the National Rural...

A number of bills will be passed by both Houses of Parliament in the absence of the Opposition over the next few days but the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, the showpiece of the UPA government, is a casualty of the present deadlock.

The UPA was keen—so was the Left—to pass the bill within a year of completing office since it aims to provide ‘‘at least one hundred days of guaranteed employment in every financial year’’ to poor rural households.

With that deadline in mind, the government introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha on December 21, 2004 and was ready to pass it at once. But Speaker Somnath Chatterjee referred the bill to the standing committee on rural development which was expected to complete discussions on it by the budget session.

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Standing committee chairman Kalyan Singh of BJP, say UPA and Left MPs, convened a meeting of the panel where members gave suggestions and decided to issue notices in newspapers to invite public opinion on the provisions of the bill.

A total of 106 responses were received from the public but none could be discussed nor respondents interviewed since Kalyan Singh did not convene any further meeting.

On April 22, CPI(M) MP Hannan Mollah wrote to Kalyan Singh, underlining the urgency of discussing the bill since it affected the livelihood of the unemployed rural poor.

Last week, following a meeting of UPA MPs on the standing committee, another letter was dispatched to Singh, requesting him to call a meeting.

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Singh conveyed to the MPs that he would convene a meeting on May 5 and 6. MPs were hopeful that after thorough discussions over two days, the bill would be ready for passage in both Houses before the session ended on May 13.

But the NDA’s decision to continue its boycott of all parliamentary committees and the government’s refusal to take the initiative to break the deadlock has dashed those hopes.

The bill will now come before the standing committee only after May 13 and will not come up for discussion and passage in Parliament till at least the monsoon session in July.

Finance Bill passed

New Delhi: The Finance Bill was passed on Thursday without the participation of the NDA in the debate. The Bill had returned to the Rajya Sabha with several amendments seeking a more favourable Fringe Benefit Tax, exemption of cash transaction tax in all savings accounts and raised tax limit for women and senior citizens.

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Despite the NDA boycott, the Upper House saw several objections raised against the Bill. If Murli Deora (Congress) hailed the Government for putting the country on road to progress, his party colleague Jairam Ramesh chided the Finance Minister for his insistence on bringing in the FBT and the cash transaction tax. —ENS

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