Education bill: Sibal under attack from Cong MPs

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posted on 13 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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The MPs said the Government should not rush the bill in a hasty manner.

New Delhi: HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday came under attack from his own party colleague for "hurrying up" with the Education Tribunal Bill against which the Standing Committee of his ministry had come out with a scathing report.

Members from the BJP, the Congress and the BSP said the Government should not rush the bill in a hasty manner and the committee's recommendations should not be trashed.

Setting the tone, the Congress member K Keshava Rao took strong objection to the ministry rejecting the report of the Standing Committee of Parliament.

Describing the Committee as "mini-Parliament", Rao said if the report of such a panel is rejected and the House is not even told, it is unacceptable.

"Standing Committee did talk about 20 to 22 subjects, which you said you do not agree," Rao said adding that the committee is "not to indulge in fashion dialogue or talks for talks sake."

"Let every minister sitting in the House first start respecting the Standing Committee," he said.

Rao said, "this kind of hasty legislation for a subject like education does not augur well" adding "his (Sibal's) thoughts run faster than the deeds of his ministry".

Agreeing with Rao, S C Mishra (BSP) said treating the standing committee report as "dustbin article" is very unfortunate. Either such committees should be abolished or their recommendations given due consideration, he said.

Mishra said this bill would rather complicate the matter, bring "endless litigation" and should not be passed in a hurried manner.

Bal Apte (BJP) said the bill was not necessary at this stage and a holistic approach was needed.

Describing the legislation as "useless", he said the government should withdraw the "half-baked" bill, which was brought without any homework and vision.

Apte said the minister, who is an eminent lawyer, has "taken care of his fraternity" as the bill would result into "lot of litigations".

Noting that the committee had come out with a scathing report on the bill, he said no effort was made by the government to get the response from major states.

Earlier moving the Education Tribunals Bill, 2010, Sibal said the regime seeks to set up education tribunals in the country to redress grievance, whose number is set to increase with the rise in enrollment.