NEW DELHI: A Congress MP heading a parliamentary committee has called its meeting on Dec 29 to discuss the ‘VB G RAM G’ bill and to compare it with the UPA-era MGNREGS, a move being seen as an escalation of political battle over the proposed law and which has drawn protest from the members of governing NDA.The agenda of the standing committee on rural development and panchayati raj includes briefing by the rural development ministry on the subject ‘Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission-Gramin (VB G RAM G) Bill’ and its comparison with the MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme).Congress MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka heads the committee.What has surprised BJP MPs of the panel is that the bill, which was passed by Parliament Thursday, is still awaiting Presidential assent. It will become a law only after its gazette notification subsequent to the nod by the President.BJP MP Vivek Thakur, a member of the panel, was unambiguous in questioning the decision, saying it betrays non-application of mind. It is yet to be notified as a law, he noted.BJP-led NDA members, who are in a majority in the committee, may take up the matter with Speaker Om Birla, who wields overriding powers as it is a Lok Sabha committee. Another BJP member said the committee cannot discuss a bill which was only days before debated and passed by Parliament, and that it can only scrutinise its implementation and make recommendations.He said the move to compare the bill with the UPA-era scheme seems to be deliberate politicisation of the issue, with Congress and other opposition parties one in slamming the new measureThe new law will replace the legislation that underpinned the rural employment guarantee scheme named after Mahatma Gandhi, whose name has now been removed.Ulaka had in Lok Sabha said during the discussion over the bill that it be sent to his committee for scrutiny, a consensus demand by opposition parties and which was turned down by the govt. Ulaka has now also written to the LS Speaker saying that the bill should be sent to his commitee.This is not the first time that the committee’s agenda, often a prerogative of the panel’s chairman, has drawn protest from BJP members.Its decision to invite activist Medha Patkar and actor Prakash Raj, both of whom are vocal critics of BJP’s policies, as witnesses during its meeting in July this year to review the implementation of land acquisition law had sparked angry reaction from members of governing party.BJP MPs were especially upset with Patkar’s presence, as they called her “anti-national” for her campaign against “development” works and had stormed out of the meeting, which came to an abrupt end.
