BJP, PDP divided over rejecting beef ban Bill
The fate of the controversial Bill moved by the National Conference (NC), seeking revocation of beef ban, would be decided tomorrow because Speaker of Legislative Assembly Kavinder Gupta could not attend his office today to finalise the business calendar.
The Speaker, who reached Srinagar this afternoon, straightway went to the residence of the Secretary, Legislative Assembly, Mohammad Ramzan, to condole the demise of his father, who died three days ago.
The Assembly Secretariat had decided to finalise business agenda for the coming autumn session of the Assembly today but the same could not done because the Speaker was not present in the office.
Sources said the Speaker has directed his secretariat to discuss all aspects, including seeking legal opinion, on the two separate Bills moved by the NC and CPI (M) member MY Tarigami seeking omission of Sections 298-A, 298-B, 298-C and 298-D of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) to revoke the ban on beef.
“The Speaker has decided to go by the rule book to take final decision on these bills,” a source said, adding, “The Assembly Secretariat would go through the precedents and previous rulings to decide the fate of these Bills”.
Sources said differences have been cropped up between the two coalition partners over deciding the fate of the NC’s Bill. “While the BJP is of the view that the Bill must be rejected outrightly, the PDP, on the other hand, argued that the decision should be taken by going through the rule book,” the source said, adding that a group in the government argued that outrightly rejecting the Bill would provide an opportunity to the NC to exploit on streets.
“A group within the government has suggested that instead of rejecting the Bill, it would be better to admit it but list on the last day of the Assembly session so that it could not be discussed in the current session,” a source said.
As per the tentative calendar issued by Assembly Secretariat, there will be only seven sittings in the autumn session of the Assembly.
As per the calendar, the government business will be taken up on October 3, 5, 7 and 9. October 10 has been reserved for private member Bills, if any.
