Bihar Assembly passes Industrial Disputes Bill amid ruckus

The Bihar Legislative Assembly on Wednesday passed the Industrial Disputes (Bihar Amendment) Bill, 2018 with voice vote amid pandemonium by the opposition demanding discussion on the “misuse” of the CBI by the NDA government at the centre.

Except for the approval given to the Bill, no other business could be taken up in the House due to the ruckus created by the opposition.

The House proceedings lasted for only three minutes during pre-lunch session while the post-lunch session could barely run for 12 minutes on the third day of the brief winter session.

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As the House assembled for the day at 11 am, the opposition members from RJD, Congress and CPI(ML) rushed into the well of the House raising slogans against the Nitish Kumar government and demanded suspension of the question hour to discuss the issue of “misuse” of the CBI by the NDA government at the centre.

The RJD has been alleging “misuse” of the CBI by the Central government against its president Lalu Prasad in the multi-crore fodder scam cases.

Prasad is languishing in Ranchi jail following conviction in some cases of the fodder scam relating to fradulent withdrawal of government money from treasuries in early 90s when RJD was in the power in the combined Bihar.

Unable to run the House, the Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary adjourned the house till 2 pm.

The opposition members continued to agitate over the same issue in the post-lunch session too.

Even as the din prevailed, Labour Resources Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha introduced the Industrial Disputes (Bihar Amendment) Bill, 2018 for its passage after the debate on it.

The debate could not take place due to noisy scenes in the House and hence the minister sought Speaker’s permission to lay his written reply on the topic and requested him to make the text the part of House proceedings.

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In his reply, which was tabled in the House, Sinha said that people engaged in sales promotion work, hitherto, did not come under the purview of the definition of ‘workman’ and hence they were not eligible to get protection enshrined under the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act 1947.

But, with the passage of the Bill, they will now be considered as ‘workman’ which would enable them to avail the benefits of protection which is available under the Act, Sinha said.

Many states have already amended the Act to the extent to give protection to people engaged in sales promotion work under the Act, he said adding that now Bihar has also taken decision to extend protection benefit to its sales promotion people.

After passage of the Bill, the House was adjourned for Thursday.