No unanimity,Cabinet keeps Lokpal Bill for another day

With the Budget session of Parliament ending next Tuesday,it was widely expected that the Cabinet would take up the amendments. Although government managers had reached out to leaders in the opposition camp,a consensus continued to elude. Sources,however,said the government can still take up the Bill for passage in Rajya Sabha as the proposed amendments can be cleared by the Cabinet post-facto if a consensus emerges in the next few days.

While the government has indicated its willingness to address the concerns of the opposition and allies Trinamool Congress and DMK on the provision for setting up of Lokayuktas in states and on removal of Lokpal,issues like granting more autonomy to CBI and the composition of the selection panel for picking the Lokpal remained a bone of contention.

Meanwhile,the Cabinet approved a Rs 8,500 crore proposal for constructing roads in 78 worst Maoist-affected districts across nine states in an attempt to bridge the development deficit.

The proposal moved by the Rural Development Ministry is likely to benefit about 6,000 habitations in these districts that were left out of the core network of rural roads approved in these districts as per the 2001 census under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). Thursday’s proposal was an additional investment over and above the Rs 24,000 crore sanctioned under the PMGSY for the entire country in the Budget.

The Ministry of Home Affairs,in its comments supporting the proposal,was learnt to have underlined the need to give special attention to 35 of the 78 Maoist-hit districts in Chhattisgarh,Orissa and Jharkhand.

The Cabinet also cleared the Agriculture Bio-Security Bill which aims to put in place stricter norms for import of agri-food products. The Bill provides for setting up of an Agricultural Biodiversity Authority of India to regulate trade on plant,livestock and their products,declaring quarantine zones,and pest control among other things as part of its overall responsibility for agricultural bio-security of the country.

Currently,a clutch of separate legislations,which include the Destructive Insects & Pests Act,1914; the Livestock Importation Act,1898; the Environment (Protection) Act,1968 and the Biological Diversity Act 2002 regulate parts of bio-security landscape across the country.