Govt hopeful of passage of Coal, Mines and Minerals bill; Land bill stuck

These are a nervous few days for the government. Its key reform bills - the coal, mines and minerals and land acquisition - have been passed by the Lok Sabha but need the Rajya Sabha's assent with only four days to go before the two Houses break for a month long recess on Friday.

The government will need to re-promulgate the three ordinances if these are not passed in the Rajya Sabha by March 20, but more than that this failure will put a huge question mark on the Narendra Modi government's ability to implement its economic reforms agenda.

If some in the Opposition are to be believed, the fate of the land acquisition bill is tied to the fate of the mines and minerals and coal bills. The latter two are currently being scrutinized by two separate Rajya Sabha select committees.

But on Monday, senior government strategists like Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu were hopeful of the Opposition leaders honouring the "gentlemen's agreement" reached in the chamber of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last week on the coal as well as mines and minerals bills.

In that meeting, the leaders of opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha had agreed for these two bills be referred to select committees and that these committees will give their reports within a week, that is by March 18, leaving the Upper House at least three days to discuss and pass the two Bills by Friday.

According to sources, the chairpersons of the two select committees on coal and mines and minerals bills - Anil Dave and Bhupender Yadav - are said to be confident of submitting their respective committee reports by Tuesday evening. But some Left and Congress MPs are likely to push for extending the deadline. Congress's Digvijaya Singh and DMK's Tiruchi Siva raised the issue before the Rajya Sabha Chairman today. The Opposition MPs are amendments to the contentious issue of allocations to states.

The government will need to send these bills back to the Lok Sabha for passage if the Rajya Sabha passes these with even the most insignificant of amendments.

But there is little hope for the contentious land Bill, other than the government re-promulgating the land ordinance, as amended by the Lok Sabha, when the earlier ordinance lapses in the first week of April. The government has prepared a list of 13 instances when ordinances were promulgated where Parliament was in session but the two Houses were in recess.

The government has planned another round of consultations on the land bill after the other two bills are cleared. But the Congress has upped the ante on the bill. The Youth Congress held a protest against the bill at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar. Opposition parties have also planned a 'Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan' march on the land bill. These parties include the Janata Parivar parties, the left parties, DMK and Trinmool Congress. "We will not support this anti- farmer NDA Land bill. We do not accept any of their amendments. We want the UPA's 2013 bill back," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said at Jantar Mantar today.