Heavy agenda for Parliament

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 14. A crowded agenda awaits the last three days of the current Parliament session, with important legislation such as the Information Technology Bill, Right to Information Bill and the three Statehood Bills for Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand scheduled for introduction.

The Congress(I), which is supporting the three Statehood Bills, today expressed doubts about the Government's seriousness. ``We hope the Bills will not suffer the fate as the Women's Bill which was introduced on the last day of the last session and not brought up this time,'' Mr. Anil Shastri, AICC spokesman, said.

The Statehood Bills will be circulated among MPs tomorrow and introduced on May 17, last day of the session. Until the Bills were passed, the Government's bona fides would not be established, Mr. Shastri said. The Bills are likely to be taken up for discussion only in the monsoon session. In a statement, the Uttarakhand Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti (USSS), the apex body for separate Statehood for the region, described the Cabinet decision to introduce the Uttaranchal Bill an ``eyewash'' and a belated step.

Within the National Democratic Alliance, the Akali Dal is opposed to including Uddhamsingh Nagar in the new State. Last time the party threatened to withdraw support on the issue but after its debacle in the 1999 polls it is no longer in a position to enforce its wishes.

The Telugu Desam Party is also not in favour of the Statehood Bills fearing they could give an impetus to other movements for separate States such as the Telengana movement in Andhra Pradesh. The Samata Party is supporting all the three Bills. But its spokesman, Prof. Shambhu Shrivastava, said his party would insist on the Rs 1.80-lakh crore package for both Jharkhand and Bihar.

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