Government plans to bring multiple important bills in Parliament, seeks to change laws in critical sectors

NEW DELHI: With finance minister Arun Jaitley stressing on Friday that things will be done outside the Budget to revive the economy, it is likely to be a winter of reforms this year.

The NDA government is drawing up changes to several laws in critical sectors such as mining, labour, transport and possibly even the contentious land acquisition regime recently put in place by the UPA that has become the biggest plaint deterring new investments and infrastructure development projects.

In line with prime minister Narendra Modi's call to purge all outdated laws that are holding back the country's development, line ministries have initiated consultations and deliberations on such laws in their domains with an eye on introducing them in the Parliament's winter session.

"In the current session, our priority is to discuss and get the Budget passed and we could bring a few other Bills for Parliament's nod following that," said parliamentary affairs minister Prakash Javadekar.

The government hopes to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Insurance Act in this session that ends on August 12. Another bill to grant national importance status to the Film and Television Institute in Pune has also been proposed and is likely to be taken up by the Modi Cabinet soon, Javadekar said.


"We have begun discussions on changing all the nine transportrelated laws in the country that have become very outdated. I intend to fast-track these deliberations and introduce the bills in Parliament's winter session," said road transport, rural development and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari.

The transport sector laws, such as Motor Vehicles Act of 1988, are being revisited and will be put on par with international best practices. The 1988 law, for instance, would include a provision that allows monitoring traffic violations by e-governance systems.

"If you break a traffic light, whoever you may be, you will be sent a challan on your mobile phone within three hours of the incident through an automated system. If you choose to contest the case in court, the fine levied on you could be three times higher," the minister said.

On the land acquisition law, he said: "I can't say much… we don't want to change the law. But all state governments, including UPA ministers, have told us it has problems. We are trying to take everyone's views and would firm up the government's position."

Separately, the labour ministry has put up draft laws to replace the Factories Act of 1947, the Apprenticeship Act of 1961 and the Contract Labour Act of 1971, for which stakeholder comments have come in and the changes are now being finalised. It is also looking at changes in the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 and the Employees' Provident Fund Act of 1952.

Officials said the plan is to bring most of these legal changes for Parliament's nod in the next session. The mines ministry is working on rebooting the Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation Act of 1957.

The UPA had proposed to change the law in 2011, but the plan fell through with industry opposing new provisions that it wanted to introduce mandating mining firms to share 26% of their profits with the locals.

A mines ministry official said that the government is likely to junk the UPA draft and bring a fresh bill to Parliament this winter.