Down To Earth: New Delhi: Tuesday, July 17, 2018.
The monsoon
session of the Parliament will be held from July 18 to August 10. While the
opposition will be looking to corner the NDA government on issues such as loan
waiver, MSP and unemployment, a slew of crucial Bills are likely to be tabled
in the session. The number of business days is just 18, and according to
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar, six ordinances will be taken up
along with the 68 pending Bills in Lok Sabha and 40 in Rajya Sabha.
Right to
Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018
The Bill on
amending Right to Information Act has been listed for "introduction,
consideration and passing" in the monsoon session of parliament. So far,
the government has refused to make public the contents of the amendment bill,
and even RTI applications seeking details of the proposed amendment have been
denied. While government claims that the Bill is only meant to revise salaries of
RTI officers—bring their salaries under Centre and state government and not
Parliament—those opposing the move believe that the decision could end up being
a coercive measure that may affect freedom of RTI officials to make the correct
decision, including going against the government.
Moreover,
there was no public consultation before the introduction of the Bill.
Dam Safety
Bill, 2018
Another Bill,
which has invited criticism even before it is tabled, is the Dam Safety Bill,
2018. It proposes to create National Regulatory Committee and National Dam
Safety Authority (NDSA)—to devise safety policies, implement guidelines and
recommend regulations.
The Centre
wants to oversee the safety of dams in shared territories between states and
have the right to access the dams without prior permission. This, according to the Centre, is important
as states, which have dams in other states, are not allowed inspections and
supervision. Hence, to avoid inter-state conflict, the Centre wants to take
responsibility for the safety of such dams.
Tamil Nadu
Assembly has unanimously agreed to oppose the Bill when it is introduced in the
monsoon session. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami recently wrote to
Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the Bill would interfere with the
existing agreements between the states to protect and maintain dams. Currently,
about 75 per cent of the large dams in India are more than 25 years old and
about 164 dams are more than 100 years old.
123rd
Constitutional Amendment Bill
This crucial
amendment aims at giving constitutional status to the National Commission for
Backward Classes (NCBC). The Bill, if passed, will make the NCBC a
constitutional body with full powers to safeguard the rights and interests of
OBCs.
DNA
Profiling Bill, 2018
The Centre is
set to table a bill to regulate DNA profiling. Under the draft Bill, the
government will set up DNA data banks across India to store profiles, and also
impose jail term of up to three years and a fine of up to Rs 100,000 on those
who leak the information stored in such facilities. These banks will maintain a
national database for identification of victims, accused, suspects, under
trials, missing persons and unidentified human remains.
National
Medical Commission Bill, 2017
This is
another Bill, which is likely to face opposition in the Parliament. It proposes
to replace 83-year-old Medical Council of India (MCI) with another body called
the National Medical Commission to curb corruption in the functioning of
MCI. However, unlike the MCI, where the
members were elected from the medical fraternity, the new body will have its
members nominated and appointed by the government.
The
Factories (Amendment) Bill
The new
amendments in the Bill contain highly objectionable provisions, with the trade
unions arguing that the proposed amendments will help the “erring big
companies”. According to them, the safety provisions in the Bill “are highly
diluted” and India will be under risk of increased factory-related disasters
such as Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
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