Union govt refers two Bills to parliamentary panels for scrutiny

Government on Monday referred two bills for scrutiny by parliamentary panels amid the Opposition's allegations of inadequate consultations in the law-making process.

The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill and the Mediation Bill were referred to a Joint Committee and the Standing Committee on Law & Justice respectively.

Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav moved the motion to refer the Biodiversity Bill to the Joint Committee with 21 members of Lok Sabha and 10 members from the Rajya Sabha.

Congress Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla protesting the decision to refer the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill to a Joint Committee instead of the Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Enviromnemt, Forests and Climate Change.

"I don't wish to say more on the motivations of the government to bypass the Standing Committee and refer the contentious bill to a Select Committee.

"The motivations are obvious. All I wish to say is that the move is a deliberate insult to the Standing Committee. The fact that I am its Chairman doesn't matter. What is more important is the dignity of the Standing Committee itself," Ramesh had said in the letter dated December 17, 2021.

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

The Lok Sabha members who are part of the committee include 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).

The other members are Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (Trinamool), Sridhar Kotagiri (YSRCP), Prataprao Jadhav (Shiv Sena), Sunil Kumar Pintu (JD-U), Achyutananda Samanta (BJD) and Ritesh Pandey (BSP).

Rajya Sabha has nominated Shiv Pratap Shukla, Anil Agrawal, Neeraj Shekhar, Ramilaben Becharbhai Bara, (all BJP), Jairam Ramesh (Congress), Jawhar Sircar (Trinamool), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), Amar Patnaik (BJD), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) and Ram Nath Thakur (JD-U).

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.

In Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Law and Justice Satya Pal Singh Baghel introduced The Mediation Bill, 2021.

It was referred to the standing committee on law and justice for scrutiny.