Rajya Sabha passes 3 Bills, Lok Sabha passes 1

More Bills might be taken up, to clear the backlog

The Rajya Sabha, which had passed only one Bill since the current session began on November 26, passed three on Monday, without any discussion. It had 18 pending at the start of the session.

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill was passed by voice vote, though with some members cautioning that voting without discussion should not be frequent.

The House also approved an additional Rs 56,256 crore of supplementary demands for grants to the government, mainly for defence pensions and the Swachh Bharat Mission. And, passed Appropriation Bill Numbers 4 and 5 by a voice vote without debate, returning these to the Lok Sabha which has already approved these.

An all-party meeting on Friday had agreed on six Bills the RS could pass before the session ends on Wednesday. A senior minister hoped more might be taken up, to clear the backlog.

The Lok Sabha passed the National Waterways Bill, 2015, with the aim of developing 101 of these (in addition to the existing five). Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said the government aimed to garner Rs 1 lakh crore to fund the project, including Rs 50,000 crore from the World Bank, to provide low-cost river transport. Profits of state shipping companies would also be routed to a subsidiary company for this.

The Rajya Sabha was repeatedly adjourned in the morning session, when Congress members demanded the resignation of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged financial irregularities in Delhi's cricket body when he was at its helm. They staged a walkout after he rubbished the charges.

Also, opposition parties there criticised the government's move to bring the Juvenile Justice Bill through the supplementary agenda route. The legislation is now for Tuesday. The Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Bill, 2015, was also postponed for Tuesday.

The opposition said Friday's all-party meeting had decided that after passage of the bills, the House would take for discussion the issues of farm distress and intolerance in society. It did begin a discussion on the plight of farmers because of flood and drought, with some asking for a Farmers' Commission.

The finance minister introduced the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015, in the Lok Sabha.