NEW DELHI: Following the elders’ nod on Wednesday, Parliament passed the School of Planning and Architecture Bill, 2014, which seeks to convert three Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs) into Centres of Excellence. The Bill was already passed in the Lok Sabha on December 3. At present, the SPAs are located in Delhi, Bhopal and Vijayawada. The Bill seeks to empower these institutes to grant degrees to students.
The Centre introduced the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2014, to replace the coal blocks allocation Ordinance. The Bill was opposed by the TMC and Left parties at the introduction stage alleging that government was planning to de-nationalise the coal mines which were nationalised in 1973. However, Goyal clarified that the Ordinance does not seek to denationalise the coal mines, but basically addressing the problems arising out of the Supreme Court judgment.
Parliament Diary
Chakravyuh In, out
It was a day for the epic Mahabharata in Parliament. In the Upper House chamber, the Opposition made the analogy of Abhimanyu’s Chakravyuh to describe the government’s move to have compromise with the US on the WTO. Just a few hours later, parliamentarians trooped in the auditorium to see a staging of a play “Chakravyuh” by their former colleague Nitish Bharadwaj.
No Hindi Takers
There was a virtual stampede among journalists for the hottest item -- report of the Select Committee on Insurance Bill in the Rajya Sabha. While English copies ran out, there were virtually no takers for Hindi report. The Hindi media journalists pointed out that the words used for these technical reports is often so obscure that it requires a special dictionary to decode them.
Black Humour
Satire and humour often spices up the dreary debates in the Lok Sabha. TMC MP Saugata Roy does not lose a chance to needle the treasury benches. After every speech, asks, “When will the government bring back the black money. When will we get `15 lakh in our accounts,” Roy says often invoking laughter from the Opposition benches and smile from the treasury benches.
Sule’s Power
Till morning, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee was belligerent that he would not apologise for his comments against the PM. Many members urged him to express regret, including NCP MP Supriya Sule. soon after Banerjee expressed his regrets, other MPs, including MM Joshi, remarked that it was only on Sule’s intervention that he has apologised.