LS refers Biological Diversity Bill to Joint Committee of Parliament

New Delhi, Dec 20: The Lok Sabha on Monday referred the Biological Diversity Bill to a Joint Committee of both houses of Parliament. Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav moved the motion to refer the Bill to the Joint Committee with 21 members of the Lok Sabha and 10 members from the Rajya Sabha.

The Committee is expected to submit its report to the House by the last day of the first week of the next session.

The Committee will comprise Lok Sabha members Sanjay Jaiswal, Diya Kumari, Heena Gavit, Aparajita Sarangi, Raju Bista, Pallab Lochan Das, Santosh Pandey, Prathap Simha, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Brijendra Singh, Ajay Tamta, Jagdambika Pal (all BJP), Gaurav Gogoi, S Jothimani (both Congress), A Raja (DMK), Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (Trinamool), Sridhar Kotagiri (YSRCP), Prataprao Jadhav (Shiv Sena), Sunil Kumar Pintu (JD-U), Achyutananda Samanta (BJD) and Ritesh Pandey (BSP).

The Rajya Sabha is expected to nominate members to the committee soon.

The bill seeks to relax certain rules in the Biodiversity Act 2002 in order to fast track research and patenting as well as empower local communities to be able to utilise resources, particularly of medicinal value, such as seeds. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had demanded that the bill be referred to a standing committee of Parliament.