Agencies
NEW DELHI, Jan 21: The second meeting of the joint parliamentary committee examining the two bills for simultaneous elections will be held on January 31, according to schedule posted on the Lok Sabha website.
The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill were introduced in Lok Sabha during the recent Winter Session and referred to the committee.
According to the Lok Sabha website, procedure and modalities for examination of the amendment bills will be discussed at the upcoming meeting.
The panel had held its first meeting on January 8, where representatives of the Ministry of Law and Justice (Legislative Department) briefed the members.
A robust exchange of contesting views had marked the first meeting of the parliamentary panel with opposition members criticising the concept as an attack on the basic fabric of the Constitution and federalism, and BJP MPs hailing it as reflective of popular opinion.
All MPs were given a trolley carrying over 18,000 pages, including one volume of the Ram Nath Kovind committee report each in Hindi and English, and 21 volumes of annexure, besides a soft copy as well. Headed by BJP MP PP Chaudhary, the 39-member joint committee comprises members from all major parties, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Congress, Sanjay Jha from JD(U), Shiv Sena's Shrikant Shinde, AAP's Sanjay Singh, and Kalyan Banerjee and Saket Gokhale from Trinamool Congress. The government decided to increase the committee's strength from 31 to 39, as more political parties expressed their desire to be part of the exercise to examine the two draft legislations on simultaneous elections. Former Union ministers Anurag Thakur, Parshottam Rupala and Manish Tewari and several other lawmakers, including Anil Baluni, Bansuri Swaraj and Sambit Patra, are also members of the committee. The panel has 27 members from Lok Sabha and 12 from Rajya Sabha. |
