Fierce protests from the Trinamool force Sonia Gandhi to ask her managers not to proceed with the land Bill.
Fearing protests from key allies, the Congress leadership may finally decide against bringing three contentious Bills during the current Winter Session of Parliament. These are the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill and the Land Acquisition (amendment) Bill.
While the Insurance Bill is already pending in Parliament, the two other have to be introduced afresh in the House. The Winter Session will continue till December 21 and there are five more working days left in this session. A top United Progressive Alliance (UPA) manager told Business Standard: “We will give priority on some other Bills during the remaining period of this session. There are some important debates lined up as well.
| LAGGING LAWS |
| * The pension Bill seeks to formalise a new defined contributory pension scheme introduced for government employees |
| * The insurance laws Bill proposes to raise the limit of FDI in insurance companies |
| * Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is vehemently opposing the land acquisition Bill |
| * The Winter Session of Parliament will continue till December 21 |
These Bills can be taken care of in the next session.” The PFRDA Bill seeks to formalise a new defined contributory pension scheme (NPS) introduced for government employees from January 2004 and extend it to the unorganised sector. The insurance laws Bill proposes to raise the limit of foreign direct investment (FDI) in insurance companies from the current 26 per cent to 49 per cent and permit foreign re-insurers to open branches in India.
According to UPA sources, key allies like Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, M Karunanidhi’s DMK along with fence-sitters like Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party may not vote in favour of these Bills. Banerjee is vehemently opposing the land acquisition Bill and she is also not in favour of introducing the pension Bill that “places the hard-earned money of the common man to private insurance agencies”, according to a Banerjee confidante. The DMK also has reservations about the Pension Bill. The SP and RJD, the two outside supporters of the Congress-led second UPA, have always been critical of the Manmohan Singh government and may use these opportunities to register its protests against the UPA.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi had announced during the previous session of Parliament that her party would pass the long-pending land Bill along with the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill during that session itself. But fierce protests from the Trinamool camp forced Gandhi to ask her managers not to proceed with the Bill.
While the Congress maintains that the Bill is not shelved, Minister of State for Rural Development and Trinamool Congress MP Shishir Adhikary told Business Standard: “There is no movement in my ministry on that Bill.”