6 Bills lined up for monsoon session; Anurag Thakur in top Lok Sabha panel
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, July 19
Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, the government on Friday listed six Bills for tabling, including a draft law to replace a 90-year-old aircraft Act and ease business in the Indian aviation sector.
The Bhartiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024, along with The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to bring greater clarity to the roles of varied organisations engaged in the disaster reduction, will be part of the government agenda, besides the Finance Bill.
The Boilers Bill to replace a pre-Independence era law; Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill; and the Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill to expand the related sectors will also be tabled.
Speaker Om Birla on Friday constituted the crucial Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha with former Union minister and five-term MP from Hamirpur Anurag Thakur, recently dropped from the Union Cabinet, making a comeback in the top panel.
The Speaker nominated Thakur in the 15-member committee alongside five BJP heavyweights — party’s national vice-president and Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda, seven-term MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, former Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal, four-term MP from Jharkhand’s Godda Nishikant Dubey and party’s senior member PP Chaudhary.
The committee that includes the Speaker as ex-officio chairman also has MPs from two NDA allies – TDP’s Lavu Devarayalu and JD(U)’s Dileshwar Kamat.
Opposition members on the panel are – Congress’ deputy leader in LS Gaurav Gogoi and chief whip K Suresh; TMC’s Sudip Bandopadhyay, DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran, Samajwadi Party’s Lalji Verma and Shiv Sena UBT’s Arvind Sawant. The first meeting of the BAC is expected on Monday ahead of the Union Budget presentation on July 23.
LS sources said the BAC would have a crucial role given the larger presence of the Opposition as compared to the 16th and 17th Lok Sabhas when the opposition had fallen short of numbers to even claim the official LoP post, which has now gone to Congress’ Rahul Gandhi. The INDIA bloc has 233 MPs in the Lok Sabha this time as against the ruling NDA’s 293.
“The Opposition’s say in deciding the agenda and time to be allocated for discussions on government and other business will be greater this time. Also unlike in the previous Lok Sabha when the BJP had a majority, the 18th LS will see more time allocation for opposition MPs as their numbers have grown,” sources said. The opposition is determined to demand discussions on paper leak, Agnipath and other people-related issues when the BAC meets for the first time next week.