With over a dozen bills pending before Parliament, Union human resource minister Kapil Sibal is set to begin consultation process afresh soon for seeing them through. The move is being viewed as another attempt by the UPA government to showcase that it is not stuck by policy paralysis and is keen on reforms in each sector.
With speculation rife that a major Cabinet reshuffle is imminent, Mr Sibal, who has been saddled with the important HRD and IT ministries, wants to be seen as a minister who can deliver on the reform agenda. All his attempts at getting important reform related bills have been stuck at various levels in Parliament. Sources stated that the HRD minister wants to get important bills through in the winter session as he wants to deliver on the much-awaited education reform front. Over the past few months Mr Sibal has been unsuccessful in garnering support from the MPs for his reform agenda in the education sector.
Several important bills like the Educational Tribunals Bill, Foreign Education Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill 2010, the Education Malpractices Bill, the Accreditation Bill, the high-profile National Academic Depository (Amendment) Bill, 2011, and National Council for Higher Education and Research 2011 are still pending before Parliament.
Over the past few months Mr Sibal is understood to have unsuccessfully engaged in several rounds of consultation with MPs to ensure that these bills are passed.
These legislation have been pending, in some cases for over two years, despite the fact that Mr Sibal had worked overtime to placate Congress MPs and Opposition members.
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250 held for n-stir, freed
Koodankulam, Sept. 16: Around 250 people were arrested in Tuticorin when they attempted to set out on a march to express solidarity with anti-nuclear agitators here who on Sunday buried themselves upto waist in beach sand, in a new form of protest against loading of fuel in Koodankuklam plant. They were freed later.
A “solidarity march” by cultural leaders from Kerala to Koodankulam to express support with the anti-nuclear activists here was also stopped on the state’s border with Tamil Nadu.
Leader of Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), which is spearheading the protest here, meanwhile, offered unconditional talks with the Central and state governments and said they were ready to give up the agitation if the government assured that fuel would not be loaded for now.
After “jal satyagraha”, the protesters, including women, shifted their stir from sea to beach and buried themselves upto waist at nearby Kootapuli.
Earlier, the protesters under PMANE too had launched the “jal satyagraha”, forming human chain in sea waters from September 13.
— PTI