17 opposition parties red-flag government 'hurry'

NEW DELHI: Seventeen opposition parties on Friday wrote to Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu saying the government was "hurriedly" passing legislations without scrutiny by standing or select committees of Parliament.
Referring to this as a fundamental departure from established practice and healthy traditions of enacting legislations, the MPs, including those from Congress, DMK, TMC and SP, urged Naidu to ensure that the opposition voice was not "smothered" in the upper House.
"While we understand our responsibility and the need to enact legislation, any attempt by the government to undermine the privileges of members, rules and established conventions will diminish the role of the council of states as envisaged by our founding fathers," the MPs said.
They also pointed to parliamentary conventions of referring bills to standing committees for legislative scrutiny. "In the 14th Lok Sabha, 60% of bills were sent for scrutiny to parliamentary committees. In the 15th Lok Sabha, 71% bills were sent for scrutiny. In the 16th Lok Sabha, only 26% of bills were sent for scrutiny. Now, in the 17th Lok Sabha, 14 bills have already been passed in the first session. But none of these bills were referred to a standing committee or select committee for a legislative scrutiny," the members said.
However, government managers pointed out that the process of sending bills to committees was not according to any set rules or norms and was usually on the basis of the implications and complexity of legislation. They also pointed out that the opposition had used its numbers in Rajya Sabha to stall bills even after scrutiny by committees and this could amount to subverting the will of Lok Sabha, which is a directly elected House.
It was also argued that committees were not always set up in the budget session. This was not the case in the 15th and 16th Lok Sabhas. Previously, it was done in the 14th Lok Sabha. In the current case, the commencement, budget and monsoon sessions have been rolled into one.
On Friday, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla constituted two joint parliamentary committees - the Public Accounts Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings, chaired by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi, respectively.
The MPs also raked up the issue of bills not being circulated to members well in advance -which was raised a day earlier in Lok Sabha and led to an assurance by Birla that bills will be made available in time from the next session.