New Delhi, December 22
The Centre is moving towards fixing a six-week report back time for parliamentary committees seen to be taking longer than expected to refer the Bills back to it. Already, a formal reference in this regard has been made to the presiding officers of both the Houses.

Of the 14 Bills the government had marked to Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha standing committees in the hope of hearing back from them before the winter session, reports came back on two — the National Green Tribunal Bill, 2009 and the Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment) Bill to reserve one third seats for women in Parliament and state legislatures. The rest are awaited, with the LS committees still to present their recommendations on The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Amendment Bill 2009, the LIC Amendment Bill, the Indian Trusts Bill, the SEBI Bill among seven others. Of the eight Bills referred to LS committees, only one report is learnt to have been submitted so far.

From the committees under Rajya Sabha, too, the government has heard back only on one Bill — women’s reservation — while five others remain pending.

With the trend becoming a norm and affecting government business in Parliament, the government has decided that committees must operate within timelines. The matter has been discussed with LS Speaker Meira Kumar and RS Chairman Hamid Ansari.

“Both have been positive. We are working to see that the panels come back to us in six weeks at the most. Currently they take time between two sessions and seek further adjournments, which are granted. But that does not augur well for government business,” said top UPA sources.

The government also wants to change functioning of committees. Right now they advertise a bill in the print media as soon as the same is referred to them. “They advertise and wait for people’s comment. At times they invite people to hear them out. This causes avoidable loss of time,” sources said, adding it was to prevent this loss of time that certain Bills requiring minor changes were brought to the Parliament in the winter session without actually being referred to the committees.

These include the Salaries and Allowances of Ministers Amendment Act, the Civil Defence Amendment Act, among others. The opposition, particularly the Left, had slammed the UPA for bypassing the committees to bring the Bills directly to the Parliament.