UPA-II will complete 500 days in about a week. The government had,through the presidents address to Parliament in June 2009,announced a 100-day agenda. That address also mentioned several bills on the task list. What progress have the bills that were proposed made?
The following eight bills were part of the 100-day agenda: Three bills related to reservation for women in Parliament,state assemblies,panchayats,and municipalities; two bills to establish national councils on health and on higher education; an amendment to the Right to Information Act; a food security bill; and the Public Services Bill. Of these,one has been passed by the Rajya Sabha and is pending in the Lok Sabha,and two have been introduced in Parliament.
The bill to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies was passed by the Rajya Sabha on March 9. Even though a large part of the budget session and the whole monsoon session has been held since then,the bill was not taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha. Two other bills have been introduced,which seek to increase the reservation for women in panchayats and municipalities from 33 to 50 per cent
The government had announced that it would establish a national council for human resources in health. The health ministry is reportedly preparing a bill to revamp the regulatory system for medical education and professional practice. In the meantime,the Medical Council of India has been replaced by a board for a period of one year; this followed the arrest of its president on charges of corruption.
A national council for higher education had also been proposed to implement the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission and the Yash Pal Committee. The HRD ministry had asked for public comments on a draft bill. The ministry has also introduced four other bills related to higher education.
We know the food security bill is being discussed by the National Advisory Council. But two bills we do not have any real information about are the amendment to the RTI which proposed disclosure by government in all non-strategic areas and the public services law,which was designed to commit all functionaries providing social services such as health and education to their duties.
In addition to these eight bills on the 100-day agenda,the presidents address mentioned five bills. These were the land acquisition amendment,the rehabilitation and resettlement bill,the communal violence bill,the right to elementary education,and the pension bill.
Of the land acquisition and rehabilitation bills,the president stated in her address: It will be our endeavour to have these bills reintroduced and enacted in the budget session of Parliament. That referred to the July-August session of 2009. Four sessions later,the bill has not yet been introduced. These bills narrow the purposes under which land may be compulsorily acquired,and increase the compensation to be paid. They also require that all displaced persons must be resettled and rehabilitated. Given the various disturbances related to land acquisition such as the Mathura incidents last month it is important for Parliament to develop legal mechanisms to resolve the conflict between development needs and the rights of landowners.
In the address,too,we were told that government will seek early approval of the bill introduced in Parliament for the prevention of communal violence. This bill,pending in the Rajya Sabha since 2005,was also mentioned in the action taken report of the Liberhan Commission on the Babri Masjid demolition. Recently,the NAC has formed a committee to redraft the bill.
The Right to Education Act is the only successful item in this list. The bill was passed a year ago,and came into effect this April. It provides the right to elementary education to every child between the age of six and 14 years.
The pension bill has a long history. An ordinance issued in 2004 lapsed,and a bill was introduced in 2005 in the Lok Sabha; that,too,lapsed,in 2009. However,a regulator has been established by notification. Pension fund managers and depositories have been approved,and they have started to provide fund management services. As the regulator does not have statutory backing,the service providers have entered into agreements to abide by its regulations. One wonders what will happen if the regulator wants to take punitive action; presumably it will have to approach a civil court with a breach of contract plaint.
To sum up,the government had listed 13 important bills,with eight of them in its 100-day agenda. Of these,one bill has been passed,another has passed one House,and two have been introduced. There is no visible progress in Parliament on the other nine bills.
The writer is with PRS Legislative,Delhi
