Rajya Sabha to sit beyond 7 pm from Monday

Business Advisory Committee of the House decided that on Thursday

Rajya Sabha will sit for late hours in last week of the first half of the budget session from Monday to clear the pending legislative and other businesses.

The Business Advisory Committee of the House that met on Thursday decided that the House will sit beyond 7 pm from Monday to take up Governments's legislative and other business during the fourth week of the current Budget session.

Government, who is woefully short of majority in Upper House, has been able to convert three of the six ordinances into bills after consultations with parties, while two of them on coal and mines and minerals have been referred to a Select Committee of Rajya Sabha.

Rajya Sabha has so far passed three bills relating to Amendment of Citizenship Act, The Motor Vehicles Act and the Insurance Laws. Lok Sabha has passed all the six Ordinance Replacement Bills.

The one on land acquisition has little possibility of passage in Rajya Sabha with a united Opposition determined to stall it in the House.

While Congress has already started a padyatra against the land bill from symbolical Bhatta Parsaul village of Uttar Pradesh yesterday that will culminate into an agitation at Jantar Mantar and gherao of Parliament on March 16.

MPs from eight Opposition parties have planned a march to Rashtrapati Bhavan next Tuesday to register their protest against the amendments proposed to be carried out in the Land Acquisition Act of 2013.

Battling the Opposition charge that the new land bill was "anti-farmer" and "pro corporate", thirty-five Union ministers yesterday huddled in a strategy meeting to counter this perception and decided with other MPs to fan out in their constituencies to clear the air over the issue.

The Upper house is still to take up for consideration and returning the Appropriation Bills relating to the Demands for Grants on Account (Railways) for 2015-16 and Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2014-15.