New Delhi, February 22
At the start of another session, Parliament has 47 Bills waiting to see the light of day.
Of these, 14 are pending in Lok Sabha and 33 in Rajya Sabha, including an extraordinary piece of legislation — the 18-year-old Constitution (Seventy-ninth) Amendment Bill, 1992, which seeks to amend the directive principles of state policy to make population control the state’s duty and provide for disqualification of MPs/legislators with more than two children!
Interestingly, among the pending RS Bills (as listed in the latest parliamentary bulletin), the oldest (23 years) belongs to the Health Ministry, which has mothered eight of the 47 pending Bills. Six of RS’ pending Bills are more than 15 years old and have remained unattended despite standing committees giving reports close on the heels of their introduction.
That inspires the question -- why have Bills if the government has no will to take them forward. A peep into the history of some affords an answer.
Buried in the list of Rajya Sabha’s pending laws is the Constitution (Seventy-ninth) Amendment Bill introduced on December 22, 1992. It was brought after the 1991 census that put India’s numbers at a whopping 844 million. “The population is growing by 17 million annually and is affecting socio-economic conditions adversely,” it said, seeking
disqualification of MPs/legislators who had over two children.
The law was to apply in prospective effect, and would give serving MPs a year to fall in line. An MP, if he already had two children, couldn’t have a third after one year of the proposed amendments taking shape; that’s if he wanted to be an MP and hence a role model.
The oldest pending RS Bill is the Indian Medical Council Amendment Bill, 1987. Its parliamentary panel report came in 1989 but no follow up happened until 2005 when former Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss reintroduced the Bill. It seeks to change the composition of MCI and give the Centre a power to dissolve the council in public interest and direct it to frame regulations. The Health Ministry, after
Ramadoss, didn’t look back on the Bill.
Others among the pending laws is the 20-year-old Workers’ Participation in Employment Management Bill. The parliamentary panel concerned took 11 years to give a report on this Bill on December 18, 2001. Nine more years have since passed but the worker-friendly Bill, which reserves 25 per cent seats in industry boards for workers, hasn’t moved an inch. Similar is the fate of 11-year-old Lotteries Prohibition Bill which the Home Ministry brought in December 1999 to prohibit the organisation, conduct and promotion of lotteries. The parliamentary panel report came in December 2001; the Bill is nowhere.
Not to miss the Women’s Reservation Bill, introduced in RS on May 6, 2008. It drew the President’s attention today, as she asked the parties to let it sail through.
