‘Govt hurriedly passing bills without scrutiny’: 17 Oppn parties write to Venkaiah Naidu

Mangalore Today News Network

Delhi, Jul 26, 2019: Expressing "serious concerns" over the passage of bills without any scrutiny in Parliament, a total of 17 opposition parties on Friday shot off a letter to Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and asked him to intervene in the matter, Yahoo reported.

 

The ongoing process of passing bills in a "hurried" way is a persion from the established practice, said the letter, which has been signed by opposition parties including Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), CPI, and CPI(M).

"We, the undersigned parties, wish to register our anguish and serious concern over the manner in which the Government is hurriedly passing legislations without any scrutiny by Parliamentary Standing or Select Committees. This is a fundamental departure from the established practice and healthy traditions of enacting legislations," the letter read.

The letter alleged that 60 per cent bills were sent for scrutiny during the 14th Lok Sabha session, while in the 15th session, 71 per cent bills were sent for scrutiny, news agency PTI reported. It added that in the 16th Lok Sabha session, only 26 per cent of bills have been sent for scrutiny.

"Now, in the 17th Lok Sabha, 14 bills have already been passed in the first session. None of these bills has been referred to a Standing Committee or Select Committee for legislative scrutiny," the letter said. "Public consultation is a long-established practice where parliamentary committees scrutinise bills, deliberate, engage and work towards improving the content and quality of the legislation."

The letter comes a day after the opposition staged a walkout as the Upper House passed the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The opposition could get only 75 votes as against 117 bagged by the ruling side at the time of voting on the bill, in the 245-member House. The BJP Government secured the support of fence-sitters BJD, TRS, YSRCP and AIADMK to defeat the Opposition bid to force referral of the contentious Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 to the select committee.

Opposition leaders accused the government of diluting the RTI architecture, while the government denied the charges and asserted that there will be no interference as far as the independence and autonomy of the Act is concerned.