BJP govt rejects oppn charge that it is bulldozing bills in RS

The BJP government on Wednesday rejected the opposition's charge that it was pushing bills through in the Rajya Sabha without proper scrutiny, saying in the last two years of the NDA-I, several bills were referred to parliamentary standing committees.

Responding to questions from reporters, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said that since this is the first session of the recently-constituted 17th Lok Sabha, standing committees have not been formed as parties are yet to send names of their members.

"This has happened in the past too," he said.

"Half the bill brought were those which had lapsed due to dissolution of (16th) Lok Sabha. These were pending in the Rajya Sabha. People did not get justice," he said, attacking the opposition for blocking the bills in Rajya Sabha.

He said that in the last two years of the previous government, eight out of 10 bills brought in the Upper House were referred to department-related standing committees.

To a question on allegation by Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad that government passed bills in Rajya Sabha through deception, he said there has been no such thing. "Who deceived them, they have to see," Javadekar said.