The Hindu : New Delhi News : Jal Board Bill referred to House panel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Jal Board Bill referred to House panel

Staff Reporter

Sheila Dikshit bows to pressure from party and dissident legislators

NEW DELHI: Bowing to pressure from the party as well as a large number of Congress MLAs, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday agreed in the Assembly to refer the controversial Delhi Water Board (Amendment) Bill, 2005, to a select committee of the House. But not before hectic behind-the-scene parleys to resolve the crisis that threatened to pitch the party and the Government head on with the dissidents pressing for withdrawal of the Bill.

As per the truce reached between the dissidents' faction led by the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Ram Babu Sharma, and Ms. Dikshit, the motion for referring the Bill to the Select Committee was moved by Mr. Sharma and it was readily accepted by the Chief Minister amid thumping of desks and protests from the BJP benches who demanded complete withdrawal of the Bill terming it as anti-people.

The Bill and some of its provisions had generated considerable heat as the Congress party had warned its own Government that it would not allow the Bill to be passed and had demanded its complete withdrawal.

It is understood that around 36 MLAs had signed the Bill but three-time MLA, Bheesham Sharma, retracted and stated that he had not put his signature on any such document.

Ms. Dikshit had declared on Saturday that there was nothing objectionable in the Bill and said it was important to have such a law in place to protect ground water.

Dissidents say `no'

However, the dissidents, who refused to back the Bill, did not buy this theory. Sensing that things were not in her favour, Ms. Dikshit convened an informal meeting of the party MLAs on Monday afternoon.

It is learnt that initially the dissidents stuck to their demand for complete withdrawal of the Bill.

However, after a closed door meeting of Ms. Dikshit, Mr. Sharma, Subhash Chopra and Pervez Hashmi, it was decided to refer the Bill to the Select Committee of the House.

Adamant CM

The Chief Minister who was adamant on the passage of the Bill is believed to have been apprised about the hostile attitude of some of the MLAs and thereafter it was decided not to press for passage of the Bill and instead refer it to the Select Committee, putting the whole issue in cold storage for the next few months.

It is understood that a majority of the party MLAs spoke against pressing the passage of the Bill with some even wondering why such a controversial decision was taken when the Government was facing flak for the poor situation on the power and water fronts.

Although the whole issue has been resolved, the role of the Hastsal MLA, Mukesh Sharma, who was the first to oppose the Bill on behalf of various legislators, came in for sharp criticism from even his own colleagues in the dissident ranks.

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