New Delhi:
With only five working days remaining before Parliament adjourns on May 8, a last minute scramble is on the cards to pass several key bills. Given the time crunch, the government's flagship land acquisition bill may not be tabled this session - it finds no mention in the list of bills to be taken up next week in Lok Sabha. The government needs the permission of the Rajya Sabha to withdraw the bill . A question mark also hangs over the crucial GST bill.
Here are the latest developments:
The pending bills include the Juvenile justice amendment bill, the Real Estate Regulation bill, Black Money bill and the Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill.
The GST bill is expected to be taken up on May 5 after Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had postponed the discussion and vote on it. But government managers concede there might not be enough time to pass the bill this session.
The GST bill also faces the problem of numbers. As a Consitutional Amendment Bill it needs support from two-thirds of both houses.
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said a section of opposition parties have agreed to support the GST bill. But it may run into rough weather in Rajya Sabha, or the upper house, where the government is in minority.
Due to the numbers crunch, the government was forced to defer the real estate bill in Rajya Sabha today. The opposition demands that the bill be examined by a joint parliamentary committee.
The absence of the land acquisition bill in the list of business has provoked speculation on whether it would be tabled at all this session. The opposition, led by the Congress, is determined to stall the bill.
Rural development Chaudhury Birender Singh told NDTV that till the land acquisition bill is withdrawn from the Rajya Sabha, it can't be tabled in Lok Sabha. But the bill, he said, was discussed in the lok Sabha recently "and we don't need too much time".
The Lok Sabha is to be adjourned sine die May 8 and Parliament will also be closed over a long weekend from May 1 to 4.
After the land bill was stalled in the first part of the budget session, the government was forced to re-issue an ordinance or emergency executive order to ensure that the changes in law did not lapse.
The GST bill is being opposed by the Congress, the AIADMK and the BJD. The bill, introduced by the UPA government in 2011, had lapsed and the Modi government had introduced a fresh version with certain changes. The Congress wants a parliamentary panel to examine the changes.
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