Corruption bills pushed aside for Budget session

Corruption appears to be on the back burner for Narendra Modi government during the Budget Session that begins on Monday.

Most of the bills that deal with corruption like the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013, and Whistleblowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015, do not figure in first eleven which the government intends to push through both the Houses.

The government has prioritised the bills in three categories of “A”, “B” and “C” – first eleven which includes converting six ordinances into bills on coal, insurance, mines and land acquisition.

The second set is of 14 bills which it feels it may bring since the first half of the session would be devoted to tabling and passing of railway and general budgets.

Category B figures the two bills on bringing amendments to the PC Act and providing protection to whistleblowers facing threat to their lives for making public scams involving high profile people.

Surprisingly, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas and Other Related Law (Amendment) bill, 2014, and The Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banking) Amendment Bill 2015 are among the seventeen other bills which different central departments want but the parliamentary affairs ministry believes it cannot push them for want of time. The government has come under attack from social activist Anna Hazare for not getting the Lokpal bill passed.

The government, however, has tried to correct the impression that it is not pro-industrialists by getting Delhi Police to act against corporate lobbyists including those representing Reliance, Essar multinational Cairn India for stealing highly classified documents from the petroleum ministry.

Ministry sources said some of the legislations on agriculture sector are unlikely to sail through both the Houses.  Among them are - The Seeds Bill, The National Cooperative Development Corporation bill, 2015, The Agricultural Bio Security bill, 2015 and The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) bill 2015.

The labour and women and child welfare ministries too seem to have become a victim of overflow of legislations in the coming session.

The parliamentary affairs ministry has expressed its reluctance to the two ministries on pushing through parliament —  The Juvenile Justice (Care and protection of Children) Bill, 2014,  The Labour Code on Wages Bill, 2015, The small factories (regulation of employment and condition of services) Bill, 2014 and The Labour Code on Industrial Relations Bill, 2015.