Kapil Sibal reaches out to UPA MPs for passage of education reform bills

NEW DELHI: Human resources development minister Kapil Sibal is trying to push through key education reform bills in the winter session of Parliament.

Sibal met MPs to discuss the legislations and to address their concerns and misgivings, on Monday, in the third of such meetings with legislators belonging to UPA and supporting parties.

Monday's meeting was attended by Congress MP from Himachal Pradesh Viplov Thakur, Mabel Rebello from Jharkhand and Ijyaraj Singh from Rajasthan. In earlier meetings, officials made detailed presentations of the bills. Issues such as funding running costs of education tribunals and questions on accreditation of colleges were also raised.

In the last two Parliament sessions, education bills were derailed by Congress MPs and hence Sibal's decision to concentrate on MPs of the ruling alliance. On two occasions, crucial education legislations could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha after Congress members objected. The legislation to put in place a system of tribunals to deal with issues relating to education institutions was delayed for an entire session as Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh, Keshava Rao, opposed what he described as "Sibal's haste" to pass the bill.

In the monsoon session, three legislations were derailed by Jesudasu Seelam, another Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh, over the issue of reservation in faculty appointment.

Sibal's first round of consultations in late October was attended by nine MPs, including Shashi Tharoor, PL Punia, Nirmal Khatri, Naveen Jindal, all Congress, and Supriya Sule of NCP. The second meeting, held earlier this month, was attended by Jesudasu Seelam and PJ Kurien of Congress, Rajniti Prasad of RJD and Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party.

The absence of information was one reason why the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Kancheepuram Bill, 2011, The Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2011, and the National Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2011, could not be passed in the monsoon session of Parliament.

The government hopes that Sibal's effort to reach out to UPA MPs to address their concerns will yield results. There is a sense of impatience with the inordinate delays in passage of these legislations. Recently, Sam Pitroda, advisor to the prime minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, called for the early passage of all 12 bills related to the HRD ministry, suggesting that they can be "fine tuned" later. Pitroda, who headed the National Knowledge Commission in UPA I, is aware of knowledge institutions and infrastructure that the country requires to be competitive.