Deal struck, hope for pension, land bills

The government Wednesday expressed the hope of passing the pension reform bill after a deal was struck with the opposition parties that they would be allowed a brief submission on the missing coal files, informed sources said.

A deal was struck after Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath approached the top BJP leadership, including party president Rajnath Singh, veteran L.K. Advani, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, the sources said.

The BJP assured the government that it would let the pension reform bill, which was being debated a short while ago, be passed in the lower house and the land acquisition bill in the upper house Wednesday. The opposition would, in turn, raise the issue of the missing coal files.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned several times as the BJP disrupted the house over the missing coal files, even as the debate on the pension reform bill was on.

Attacking the government when the house reconvened at 2.30 p.m., Sushma Swaraj demanded that the government come clean as to when a First Information Report (FIR) would be filed in the case of the missing files related to coal blocks allocations. She also sought to know when the Central Bureau of Investigation would be allowed to question the prime minister.

Samajwadi Party leader Shailendra Kumar wanted the government to clarify the matter, and wondered against whom an FIR could be filed in this case.

Similar concerns were raised by the Janata Dal-United, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Biju Janata Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party.