Several adjournments and walkouts in the Lok Sabha notwithstanding, the Parliament yesterday managed to pass a number of important bills, including the Appropriation (vote on account) bill, 1997, on the penultimate day of the first part of the current budget session.
Both Houses would go on a months recess from Saturday to allow parliamentary standing committees to discuss demands of grants for individual ministries.
The important bills approved today include the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) bill, the Reserve Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, the Aquaculture Regulatory Authority Bill and Port Laws Bill.
Though some of these legal measures were adopted unanimously and without much discussion, there were serious differences of opinion on others. Setting aside the normal practice of allowing some time lag between the introduction and consideration of a bill to enable members to study the provisions, the aquaculture bill was brought before the upper House and passed at one go. The RBI bill, on the other hand, was passed amidst a BJP walk-out.
The passage of the aquaculture bill had acquired urgency in view of the deadline of March 31 set by the Supreme Court for dismantling all aquaculture farms within 500 metres of the coastal areas.
The new law will help save these farms which have come up with huge investment.
The passage of vote on account, too, had been a necessity to enable the government to continue its routine expenditure till the final passage of the budget which will be only in the resumed session after the one-month break.
