Passage of bill might be delayed
The constitution amendment bill to operationalise the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh appears unlikely to be passed in the current winter session of Indian parliament, indications show.
The fourth and final week of the session begins today but the bill to implement LBA does not figure among the series of legislations mentioned by an Indian official statement to be considered and passed by parliament.
The winter session is scheduled to end on December 23.
If the bill to operationalise the agreement is not considered and passed in the ongoing session, then it has to wait till the long budget session expected to begin sometime late February next year.
The bill needs to be passed by two-thirds majority of the members in both Houses of Indian parliament — Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.
Since a consensus has emerged among all the major political parties concerned with the bill, including ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, main opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress, the passage should not be a problem.
The consensus is reflected in the “unanimous” report of the parliament standing committee submitted to parliament on December 1 which recommended the passage of the constitution amendment bill.
The committee, headed by Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor, has members from BJP, Congress and Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and other parties.
However, right now it appears that during the ongoing winter session, the priority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is to focus on passage of bills relating to Indian domestic economic reforms.
The bills may include Insurance Bill that seeks to enhance foreign direct investment limit in the capital-starved insurance sector and Companies Bill which aims at enhancing ease of doing business.
The official statement said that the bills proposed by the government for consideration and passing in Lok Sabha during the remainder of the session also include Regional Rural Banks (Amendment) Bill, 2014 and Anti-Hijacking (Amendment) Bill.
The bill relating to the implementation of LBA was placed in Rajya Sabha in 2013 by the then Congress-led UPA government, drawing strong opposition from BJP which was then in the opposition.
However, BJP has taken a U-turn with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself declaring more than a week ago that the bill was in India's long-term security interest.
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