Rail Budget passed amid pandemonium

Rs 44,000 crore railway budget passed as Opposition disrupts parliament on Uma Bharti issue

The Rs 44,000 crore Railway Budget was passed by the Lok Sabha today in a twinkling of an eye as the NDA-led Opposition hooted, shouted and refused to let the Lok Sabha run on the issue of the imminent arrest of former BJP chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Uma Bharti as a 'proclaimed offender'.

NDA leaders including former Railway Minister Nitish Kumar warned that this would be the fate of the Finance Bill as well. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said the Finance Bill would be passed but filibustering would continue.

Parliament is likely to be adjourned for the foreseeable future with NDA leaders asserting their right to fly the national flag anywhere.

Realising that it has to get Parliament to conduct essential business, the government has adopted the stratagem of getting motions passed without debate. The Railway Budget was one example, the Finance Bill is likely to be the next.

Although the Opposition MPs had tabled several cut motions (indicating areas of difference between the government and the Opposition) in the Railway Budget, none was even considered.

Amid the howling and hooting in the Lok Sabha, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee allowed papers to be laid on the table of the House, asked Railway Minister Lalu Yadav to present the Budget, got 'ayes' to endorse it and deemed the Budget passed.

Bureaucrats said they were neither surprised nor disappointed, because they had not expected much by way of legislative business from this session of the House, any way.

"In the first part of the Budget session, time lost due to adjournment, because of interruptions on various issues, was eight hours in the Lok Sabha and 29 hours in the Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha lost 27 per cent of the time it sat and the Rajya Sabha lost 40 per cent of the time. But we are not too worried. A new government is in place and as all the old Bills have lapsed, it will have to bring fresh Bills in the Lok Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha, pending Bills will have to undergo scrutiny of the Cabinet and reviewed. We were not expecting much, any way" said a senior bureaucrat in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

Two Bills pertaining to the Ministry of Finance: the Central Excise Laws repeal Bill, (2004), and the Central Excise Tariff Amendment Bill, (2004), have been introduced in the Lok Sabha and might be discussed in the course of the session.

The Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2001 is pending in the Rajya Sabha, which enables imposition of safeguard measures where surge in imports leads to threaten domestic industry and also include definition of a developing country.

The Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2002, that seeks to broaden coverage of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, strengthening penal provisions, etc is also pending in the Rajya Sabha.

In the last session, the Lok Sabha could not take up a suo motu statement of foreign minister on Indo-Pak dialogue (foreign secretary level talks) and the hostage crisis in Iraq.

A short duration discussion on internal security in the country also had to be shelved, as was a short duration discussion on flood and drought, a calling attention on move to reduce interest rate of the employees provident fund from 9.5 per cent to 8.0 per cent, and on a move to curb the right to strike by employees.