Parliament House (Reuters File Photograph)
The Union government discussed 23 bills which are to be introduced in the budget session of Parliament, which starts on February 23. Among them will be six bills, which are to replace the Ordinances passed after the winter session.
Today, 15 ministers - including home minister Rajnath Singh, finance minister Arun Jaitley, women and child welfare minister Maneka Gandhi, HRD minister Smriti Irani - and secretaries of their departments attended a meeting to review the bills.
The concerned ministries were asked to give notices for introduction of bills which are to replace the Ordinances, by February 17, said Parliamentary Affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu.
The four bills involve the ordinances on coal mining, land acquisition, insurance and mines and minerals (development and regulation).
The government also plans to bring in bills to replace the Citizenship (Amendment) Ordinance and the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Ordinance, Mr Naidu said.
The citizenship bill is pending clearance by the cabinet as Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted few ministers to get together and fine-tune it.
The government had faced opposition criticism following the winter session for bringing in too many ordinances. Even President Pranab Mukherjee had reminded the Centre that government has limited powers to issue ordinances.
Since May last year, the government has used the ordinance route 10 times to push key policy changes, due to its lack of majority in the upper house of Parliament or Rajya Sabha.
The other key bills for this session will include the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013, and the Lokpal and Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill.