By IANS
New Delhi : The 23-day winter session of the Indian parliament witnessed a large number of bills being passed and important discussions held, including on the contentious India-US civil nuclear agreement, before coming to an end Friday.
The session, which had 17 sittings, lost a few hours due to disruptions over the violence in West Bengal’s Nandigram. However, it passed several important legislations, including the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University Bill to set up a university for tribal students, and the landmark Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2007, that makes the protection of elders and parents a constitutional obligation for children and relatives.
It also passed the Armed Forces Tribunal Bill to set up a mechanism to address grievances of the men and women in uniform.
The parliament discussed the nuclear agreement, the proposal to set up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Nandigram and the consequent violence in the area, and the need for harmonious functioning of the three organs of the state – Legislature, Judiciary and Executive.
Adjourning the Lok Sabha sine die, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said Friday the lower house had lost 20 hours of time “due to interruptions and forced adjournments but the house sat for over 17 hours to complete financial, legislative and other business and for raising matters of urgent public importance.”
The house passed 14 bills and 13 were introduced, including the much-awaited Land Acquisition (Amendment) bill and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill to make land acquisitions trouble free and ensure effective rehabilitation of those displaced.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi termed the session as “a success”.
“The debate on the nuclear agreement showed that the government was not shying away from anything nor hiding anything,” Dasmunsi told reporters here.
The Lok Sabha also discussed for almost four hours the statutory resolution regarding approval of Presidential rule in Karnataka. In the lower house, the MPs raised 193 matters of urgent public importance.
According to Rajya Sabha chairperson Hamid Ansari, the upper house lost 18 hours due to the uproar over issues such as the bomb blasts in a local court in Uttar Pradesh, the anniversary of the Babri Masjid mosque demolition on Thursday and on the Nandigram violence.
“The winter session was better than the monsoon session,” Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP Sitaram Yechury said.
However, he blamed the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for disrupting the proceedings without allowing other people-related issues to be raised.
“Issues like price rise, (Rajinder) Sachar committee report (on the socio economic status of Muslims in the country) and the deepening agrarian crisis have not been taken up,” Yechury said.
The winter session had commenced on Nov 15.