M A I N   N E W S

Winter Session of Parliament begins today
Oppn set to counter govt on raising FDI cap in insurance
* 37 Bills lined up for passage
* Land Acquisition Amendment Bill unlikely
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 23
Minutes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said he hoped for a constructive Winter Session of Parliament starting tomorrow, several opposition parties prepared ground for confrontation vowing to oppose the Bill to raise the FDI cap in insurance from 26 to 49 per cent.

The opposition came from the JDU, CPM, BSP and SP after the all-party meeting the government had convened this evening to discuss the legislative agenda for the session. At the meeting, the PM told leaders that the government was ready to discuss any issue and together any matter could be taken forward.

He hoped the opposition would extend "the kind of cooperation they did in the Budget Session", something the PM had welcomed in his first Independence Day speech.

But the Opposition didn't seem to be in a mood to oblige with JDU leader KC Tyagi saying after the meeting: "The JDU, CPM, BSP and SP have decided to oppose the Bill on FDI in insurance. We will seek Congress' support for larger opposition unity."

The TMC skipped the meeting today with its chief Mamata Banerjee accusing the RSS of stage managing Burdwan blast for political gains. The SP was also absent from the meeting attended by 40 leaders from 26 parties, including Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge, BJD's Bhartruhari Mahtab, AAP's Dharamvir Gandhi, CPM's P Rajeev and CPI's D Raja.

Among 37 Bills the government has lined up, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu mentioned the ones on raising FDI limits in insurance and goods and services tax among the legislative priorities. Others include legislations on replacing the coal ordinance, promoting ethical practices in biomedical research on humans, imposing stiffer penalties on hijackers and improving ease of business and regional rural banks.

The government is bent on pushing hike in FDI caps in insurance as it will tomorrow bring in Rajya Sabha a resolution to nominate in place of JP Nadda and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (now ministers) two members to the select committee examining the Bill. The other bills will be prioritised following the Business Advisory Committee meeting of the Rajya Sabha tomorrow and of the Lok Sabha a day after.

The Tribune has learnt that the controversial Land Acquisition Bill is unlikely in this session as it is still at a consultative stage. The Congress has vowed to oppose this bill after evidence of the dilution of the version it had drafted.

The Congress is also set to corner the government for its failure to retrieve black money, besides questioning the dilution of MNREGA and other major laws. A Congress leader said: "Out of 60 bills pending in Parliament, 42 are the ones we piloted. Many are being toned down. We will look for amendments and react accordingly."

Govt discusses UPSC-CSAT

The government on Sunday said it would resolve the controversial issue around the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), the second paper of the UPSC prelims, which Hindi-speaking and humanities background aspirants want scrapped on grounds that it favours the English-speaking and technical stream students. At the all-party meet on Sunday, Secretary, Department of Personnel & Training, made a presentation on CSAT with the government later saying it would within two days circulate the said report to all political party leaders and invite suggestions from them within 15 days on ways to resolve the issue. In June this year, students had launched protests to scrap CSAT. The government had responded by dropping eight questions on English comprehension from CSAT and promising a long-term resolution of the matter.

Opinion of leaders will be sought on continuation of English Language Comprehension Skills in paper - II (CSAT), reduced weightage of analytical component, to make paper-II qualifying, revert to optional paper and any other alternative.

On the agenda

• Bill on goods and services tax
• Legislations on replacing the coal ordinance
• Promoting ethical practices in biomedical research on humans
• Imposing stiffer penalties on hijackers
• Improving ease of business and regional rural banks

All-party meet convened

• Government convened all-party meeting on Sunday evening to discuss the legislative agenda
• SP, TMC skip meeting which was attended by 40 leaders from 26 parties
• The JDU, CPM, BSP and SP decided to oppose the Bill on FDI in insurance