UPA to release Ordinance bonanza

Rahul Gandhi has for some time now been championing the bevy of anti- corruption legislations

Despite Opposition criticism, the central government is going ahead with its plans to push through several ordinances on the eve of polls, which includes a gamut of anti-corruption bills spearheaded by Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.

The ordinances which include the Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill and the Public Procurement Bill, 2012, are slated to come up before the cabinet meeting on Friday.

Gandhi has, for some time now, been spearheading the bevy of anti-corruption legislations and has publicly blamed the Opposition for scuttling the bills in Parliament.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance had also been keen on moving the Amendment to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 but since it could not be cleared by Parliament in the recently concluded Winter session, it is also to be now moved through the Ordinance route.

 

Disability rights activists had also held forth with Rahul Gandhi lobbying their cause; government sources indicate that the Rights of Persons with Disability bill will be moved as Ordinance.  

 

This apart, the Security Laws (Amendment) bill is also on the Cabinet agenda for Ordinance route. 

 

The Opposition has lashed out the government’s Ordinanace bonanza, “Issuing an ordinance is something which should be done in exceptional cases and between two sessions of Parliament. We (BJP) are against the ordinance route at this point of time and will register our protest with the President of India,” BJP President Rajnath Singh said today.  

 

However Law minister Kapil Sibal defended the government’s move saying, “If parliament is not allowed to function we have no recourse but to bring ordinances. We are not passing an ordinance on higher education, only the set of legislation relating to prevention of corruption.”