On Thursday too, the Rajya Sabha passed three Bills without any major discussion as Opposition members boycotted the proceedings over the violence in Manipur. The Upper House had passed three Bills on Wednesday in a similar manner.
The Rajya Sabha passed Bills such as the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, the Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill and the Advocates (Amendment) Bill on Thursday.
Replying to the debate on the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi said the auction and mining of coal, minerals and metals were marred with corruption and scandals under the previous UPA regime. He said that under the Narendra Modi government, no one could raise even an allegation as the Centre created a foolproof mechanism to auction minerals and metals.
Mr. Joshi said the Bill was brought in after consultations with all stakeholders, including State governments, and the Rules will also be drafted in a similar manner. He assured the House that mining of beach sand minerals will remain with public sector undertakings.
Moving the Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said the Bill is to replace an 1867 law brought by the colonial rulers for centralising powers. He said the new Bill will decriminalise certain provisions in the old law and will help in ease of doing business.
“The proposed legislation is based on the spirit of upholding media freedom and ease of doing business by making the entire process of allotment of title and registration of periodicals simple and simultaneous, through an online system without the requirement of any physical interface, which would be fast-tracked by the Press Registrar General, thereby ensuring that publishers, especially small and medium publishers, face little difficulty in starting a periodical,” Mr. Thakur said in the statement on objects and reasons of the Bill.
Arjun Ram Meghwal moved the amendments to the Advocates Bill. He said the Bill is a continuation of the Centre’s policy of repealing all obsolete, pre-Independence laws which have lost their utility. He said the Centre had consulted the Bar Council of India to amend the Advocates Act of 1961 and incorporated provisions to reduce the number of superfluous enactments in the statute book. The amendment is also to insert a new section that gives power to every High Court, District Judge, Sessions Judge, District Magistrate and every Revenue officer, not being below the rank of a Collector of a district, to frame and publish lists of touts.
