New Delhi: Opposition parties in Lok Sabha kept up their attack yesterday against the government for introducing bills at short notice saying the practice went "against democratic principles".
As a Bill to repeal obsolete laws was tabled today, the opposition hit out at the government for the second straight day, charging that it was introducing topics for legislation at short notice.
When Law and Justice Minister Sadananda Gowda introduced the Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2014, as the last item of business for the day, senior Congress member KV Thomas protested against the move.
He said the government was carrying on with the practice which "cannot be allowed" as it was against parliamentary and democratic principles.
"This is not a good practice," Thomas said even as he was backed up by other opposition MPs, including Saugata Roy (TMC) and NK Premachandran (RSP).
Roy said that the government's approach was creating problems for the MPs as they are not being able to study the subject properly and move amendments accordingly. The legislators said the Bill today was not included in the revised list of business.
The Bill is likely to be taken up for consideration and passage tomorrow.
Yesterday, opposition members had raised the same issue during the debate on two pieces of legislation -- Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Bill, 2013, and Merchant Shipping (Second) Amendment Bill, 2013.
Saying these bills were not listed in the revised list of business, opposition MPs complained that they had got no opportunity to study the legislation being brought in by the government.
Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari had tabled the Bills in Lok Sabha through the second supplementary list of business a day after these were cleared by Rajya Sabha.
When the issue was brought to the notice of the Chair by the opposition benches, Bharthruhari Mehtab of BJD said that the agenda should be prepared in advance and members should be given time to study it. Later, Lok Sabha had cleared the Bills.
"This is becoming a practice (of this government). This should be avoided," he had said.
