The select committees of the Rajya Sabha studying key reform bills of coal and mines sectors today adopted their reports in which opposition members from Congress, Left and JD-U gave their dissent notes.
The reports will be tabled and adopted by the Rajya Sabha tomorrow, keeping with their deadline.
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill and the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill were sent to separate select committees by a united opposition on March 12 as they wanted a thread-bare examination of the legislations.
The Mines and Minerals and the Coal and Mines bills are likely to face fresh resistance in the Upper House, with Congress, Left and JD-U strongly opposed to the measures that seek to replace ordinances in this regard.
Sources say that the government is likely to bring two amendments in the Mines and Minerals Bill and its modalities are being worked out.
Sources add that government may contemplate an amendment in the Coal Bill too to take care of the concerns of some opposition members and ensure its passage.
Samajwadi Party has also given a note stating that the interests of miners be taken care of in the Mines bill or else they will oppose the measure during voting.
In case the Rajya Sabha approves the amendments in the bills, they will have to go back to the Lok Sabha, for which government is mulling extension of the first half of the budget session which ends on March 20.
The Mines and Minerals Bill and the Coal and Mines bill are likely to face fresh opposition in the Rajya Sabha as Congress, left and JD-U members of the two Select Committees examining the measure have given dissent notes.
The select committees, set up by the Rajya Sabha, were asked to submit their reports by March 18, two days before Parliament goes for a month-long recess in the budget session.
The government had bowed to opposition pressure and agreed to refer these bills to the select committees after it faced the prospect of yet another embarrassment in Rajya Sabha last night when opposition amendments to the Mines bill appeared set to be passed.
Both the panels had 19 members from all opposition parties and the committee examining the Mines and Minerals bill was headed by Bhupinder Yadav while that on Coal Mines was headed by Anil Madhav Dave, both of BJP.
