LS: 8 bills passed in 17 minutes without debate

New Delhi, Dec 24: Lok Sabha passed eight bills in 17 minutes amidst pandemonium on Tuesday, Dec 23. It was the much extended special session of Parliament called for the Manmohan Singh govt's July 22 trust vote.

As BJP MPs created panic condemning the govt's dragging on the issue of Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay's resignation, the chair took up the pending legislation which had mounted from nine to the five listed at the beginning of the day.

The bills passed through the Lok Sabha were on the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Amendment Bill, Compensatory Afforestation Act, Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) UT Order (Amendment), South Asian University Bill, Code of Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill and Collection of Statistics Bill.
This week's proceedings marked yet another low for parliament. According to the sources, Parliament had met only 32 days this year.

To meet the margin it was expected to meet minimum 100 days. Lok Sabha met for 151 days in 1956, 98 days in 1976, 109 days in 1985 and in 1999 it had met for 51 days. MPs on Tuesday, Dec 23 complained that additional bills, pushed in as the supplementary list of business, were not circulated, even legislation was not discussed at all. Hence the procedure adopted on Tuesday was irregular.

Due to the uproar in the House, MPs could not track which bill was being passed unless keeping an eye on the minister who was rising in response to the chair. When the House met at 2pm, speaker Somnath Chatterjee was absent, who had conducted proceeding since the morning. Deputy Speaker Charanjit Atwal did not pay heed to the pandemonium and went ahead with the legislative business.

Enraged Left MPs went to the chair in protest when the govt was passing the bill one after the other. Telecom Minister A Raja moved the Information Technology Amendment Bill clause by painful clause on Monday, Dec 22, for a full 26 minutes.

A little earlier, railway minister Lalu Prasad moved the Appropriations Bill for his ministry. Other legislation to be passed included the Gram Nyayalaya Bill and the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases in Animals Bill.

Passing 12 bills in two days is an Herculean task even if the House had decided to sit late into the night.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)