BJP allies join opposition, demand reconsideration of Railways Act

New Delhi: The Centre faced embarrassing moments in the Lok Sabha on Monday, after it had to agree to refer the Indian Railways Act (Amendment) Bill to the parliamentary standing committee following a near unanimous view of the House that the proposed legislation was “flawed” and “anti-poor”.

In a clear indication that the Union government had rushed with the Bill without proper consultations, all the BJP members who spoke in the discussion criticised the proposed definition of the “accidental falling” and the move to put the onus on the dependants of the victims to prove that sufficient care was taken to avoid the accident.

The BJP ally Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) too joined the Opposition in demanding a reconsideration by the government on the legislation. Even the “government-friendly” parties, like AIADMK, TDP and BJD, raised questions on putting the “burden of proof” on the victims in the proposed legislation, which seeks to curb the practice of rising number of false cases for compensation from the railways.

Even after a full discussion on the bill and subsequent reply by the Union railways minister Sadanand Gowda, the Opposition members stood their grounds to demand the Bill to be sent to the parliamentary standing committee of a joint select committee.

The leader of the Congress Mallikarjuna Kharge pointed out that since almost all the MPs who took part in the discussion raised serious questions and also since it was not an urgent legislation, why the Centre is adamant to pass it.

Intervening on the matter, parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu said that “it’s not an ideological or prestige issue of the government and if the House willed the Bill could be referred to the standing committee”.

The railways had first mooted the idea for such a Bill when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the railways minister, who had given his nod, which was, however, withdrawn when Ms Mamata Banerjee succeeded him.