Parliament will meet for the winter session from Wednesday. The two Houses normally meet for the winter session towards the end of the third week of November and adjourn sine die before Christmas. This time, however, the winter session has been advanced by a week so that the government can later advance next year’s Budget session and get more time to roll out the Goods and Services Tax regime from April 1. The new regime will subsume excise, service tax and other local levies, including VAT and octroi.
Parliament had passed the Constitution Amendment Bill aimed at facilitating the new tax regime during the monsoon session. It has to pass two supporting legislation now to put the arrangement in place. The intervening period between the last and the new sessions has been utilised for obtaining a requisite ratification of the amendment by at least half of the 31 states.
Coming ahead of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab, it is undoubtedly going to be a turbulent affair. The atmosphere is already strained due to debates over the army’s surgical strikes inside Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. The BJP is out to draw maximum mileage from the strikes, while the Opposition, particularly the Congress, is critical of the ruling party’s attempt to capitalise on what it views as an achievement of the armed forces. Demonetisation, encounter killings of SIMI undertials and other issues will also come up.
Herald to be launched online
Congress mouthpiece National Herald may soon be launched in an online format, its newly appointed Editor-in-Chief Neelabh Mishra said on the eve of the birth anniversary of the newspaper founder Jawaharlal Nehru. Though Mishra did not give any specific date or timing for the launch, he said finishing touches were being given to the party journal. The Associated Journals Ltd had in August announced that National Herald, which became defunct in 2008, would resume publication. “The Associated Journals Ltd, a company founded in 1937 by Pandit Jawaharalal Nehru, has taken steps to resume publication of its English and Hindi newspapers National Herald and Navjivan,” Congress Treasurer Motilal Vora, who is also managing director of AJL Limited, had said.
Tewari wants ‘liberation’ for legislators
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Noting that lawmakers have become “virtual hostages of whip-driven tyranny”, former Union minister Manish Tewari (pictured) has pitched for “liberating” them from party discipline except in cases of legislations that threaten the stability of a government. Writing on the issue of whip and the need for “liberating the legislator”, Tewari wondered whether the system had upended whereby choice lies with an individual elector but legislative power resides with political parties. “...rather than articulating the predilections and priorities of the territorial constituency that they represent, (lawmakers) have become but virtual hostages of a whip-driven tyranny,” he said in his book Decoding A Decade — The Politics of Policymaking.
Akhilesh to rain goodies on state
Goodies will rain down on the people of Uttar Pradesh this week as Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav prepares for elections. On Wednesday, the CM will inaugurate the first phase of the beautification project of the Gomti riverfront. On Friday, Lucknow will hold its own literary festival. On Saturday, UP will have its own Dial 100 call centre number for police all over the state, including Agra, Allahabad and other cities. And, on Sunday, Yadav will distribute free school bags and books to schoolchildren in Lucknow.