PM sets up informal ministerial groups to vet two bills

New Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to have decided to move in a more careful manner on legislative processes as he has set up two informal ministerial groups to go into two new bills which could be contentious.

One of the informal groups to be headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will scrutinise the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) amendment bill, which provides for bringing under its ambit more products and mandatory certification of products concerning human life, security and health, sources said here today.

The bill could be contentious as it provides for involvement of private players in standardisation process, the sources said.

Other members include Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Another informal panel, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, will go into Seed bill which seeks to regulate the quality of seeds and planting material, to curb the sale of spurious and poor quality seeds, increase private participation in seed production and distribution.

Other members of this group include Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The first meeting of both the committees will take place tomorrow, the sources said.

These groups have been formed against the backdrop of the mess the Land Acquisition Bill has got into with all opposition parties uniting against the measure and stepping up a campaign against the government over it. .

These committees have been formed to assess the political impact that these proposed legislations will have, sources said.

The sources said such committees were set up to look into Citizenship Bill and a bill to amend Lokpal Act.

The bill to amend the Lokpal Act was contentious as the main change was that absence of any one of three members of Selection Committee — PM, CJI and Leader of Opposition/Leader of largest opposition party — in a meeting will not “vitiate” the proceedings.

The decision to set up such informal groups assumes significance as the Modi government, soon after coming to power, had scrapped all Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOMs) and Group of Ministers, set up by the previous UPA regime.

There were nine EGOMs and 21 GOMs when the new government came in May last year.

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