Statehood for Uttarakhand was announced by Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15. But the move has subsequently floundered as the CPM, afraid that it will give the Gorkhaland agitation a fillip, has demanded that a hill council should have sufficed.
Perhaps after lectures on the subject from his Left Front colleagues in the West Bengal state government, Union home minister Indrajit Gupta made a statement on Saturday in Calcutta distancing himself from the move. That may be a prelude to the CPI ministers rethinking their stand on the issue.
A senior government source indicated that the bill to give statehood to the UP hill districts was unlikely to come before either house of Parliament until at least next week.
He revealed that the bill to set up a Lok Pal was also not ready yet. The file regarding the draft bill has moved from the law ministry to the department of personnel but is yet to be finalised.
The government is likely to introduce a draft bill on agricultural workers during the session, which is slated to end on September 13. Labour Mminister M Arunachalam had convened an all-party meeting last Monday to seek views on the bill.
The bill is likely to guarantee uniform minimum wages for agricultural workers throughout the country.
Apart from the Union budget proposals and the demands for grants by various ministries, budgets for UP and J&K, both of which are under central rule, have to be passed by the Lok Sabha during the remainder of the session.