CABINET MAY PASS ORDINANCES FOR PRO-PEOPLE, ANTI-GRAFT BILLS

NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet is expected to consider ordinances for the pro-people and anti-graft legislations that could not be passed in the Parliament session that ended on Friday.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had assured members of Jan Sansad — a group of civil society bodies fighting for propeople legislations — that the government would do its best to have the ordinances notified.

At an election rally in Dehradrun on Sunday, Gandhi said that the UPA government was trying to bring anti-graft ordinances after the opposition blocked their passage in Parliament.

“We are totally committed to what Rahul Gandhi wants. The departments have been instructed to prepare the ordinances so that they can be cleared before the election dates are announced,” said a cabinet minister.

But, the government will have a small window as the cabinet will have to first prorogue the Parliament session and then approve the ordinances. The ordinances will be have to be notified before this summer’s general elections are announced sometime in the first week of March.

The legislations that the Parliament did not approve include an amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act that protects honest officers. A law providing for penalising officers who fail to deliver services on time and have a grievance redress mechanism would be enacted through an ordinance.

The government’s ordinance basket would include the new Disability Rights Act that widens the ambit of disability and provides punishment for failing to implement the law.

THE LEGISLATIONS THAT PARLIAMENT DID NOT APPROVE INCLUDE AN AMENDMENT TO THE PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION ACT THAT PROTECTS HONEST OFFICERS .