RS votes again on land swapping bill

The historic India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement Bill was once again passed by the Rajya Sabha after drafting errors were detected in the legislation and the Lok Sabha returned it after corrections.

The clearance came minutes after acrimonious exchanges and five adjournments in the first two hours of the proceedings on Opposition demand for removal of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari following adverse comments against him in a CAG report. The opposition agreed to sit at 1 pm, when normally the House adjourns for lunch, to clear the bill.

The bill was cleared in 17 minutes with all the 182 members present voting in favour of the legislation. Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad expressed caution over the casual manner in which officials drafted the bill.

The Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill to allow the operationalisation of the 41-year-old India-Bangladesh land boundary agreement was cleared by Parliament unanimously last week but an error in numbering of the bill forced the Lok Sabha to send it back to the Rajya Sabha where it was cleared first.