NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR, MARCH 4
The Gujarat Assembly on Friday passed two bills pertaining to amendments in the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act of 2020 and the Gujarat Organic Agricultural University Act of 2017. Both the amendment bills were passed in the absence of Congress MLAs, who had walked out of the House immediately after Question Hour following the suspension of senior MLA Punja Vansh.
The Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition)(Amendment) Bill-2022 which was tabled by state Revenue Minister Rajendra Trivedi, proposes that the word ‘land’ in the original act “shall not include the land in respect of which applications for grants are pending on the date of commencement of this Act under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights), Act, 2006”.
The amendment would protect tribals from any penal action under the Land Grabbing Act if they had already applied for allocation of land under Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, the minister said.
Another important amendment proposed was about the provision of appeals against orders issued by special courts constituted under the Land Grabbing Act, the minister said, adding that now aggrieved persons can file an appeal in the High Court against the special court orders within 30 days, something which was not there in the present Act.
The Assembly also passed the Gujarat Organic Agricultural University (Amendment) Bill, which proposes to rename Gujarat Organic Agricultural University as Gujarat Natural Farming and Organic Agricultural University.
The Gujarat Organic Agricultural University came into existence after the Assembly passed a bill in 2017, and is currently functioning from Anand Agricultural University campus in Anand town.
“Natural farming means chemical free or traditional farming methods. The Union government has spoken of promoting natural farming in this year’s budget too. Thus, to boost the movement of natural farming, we considered it necessary to change the name of the university and add natural farming in it,” Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel said while tabling the Bill.
As per the original Act, the proposed university was to be built in Gandhinagar. Now, as per the amendment, the permanent campus of the varsity will be established in Halol taluka of Panchmahal district, added Patel.
Congress MLA suspended for mocking MoS for Home Harsh Sanghavi
Congress MLA Punja Vansh from Una was suspended from the house for seven days over using unparliamentary language during the third day of the Gujarat Assembly session on Friday.
MLA Punja Vansh said that MoS for Home Harsh Sanghavi “uses bad language”, which led to a ruckus in the House.
During the session, Congress MLAs sat on the floor after complaining about not getting a proper response. This is when Harsh Sanghavi said “aisi dadagiri nahi chalegi”, to which MLA Punja said that Sanghvi uses a bad language.
A huge ruckus was created inside the house. For using unparliamentary language, Congress MLA Punja Vansh was suspended for a week. Congress was very upset with the decision and decided to walk out.
Meanwhile, over the question of dealing with the drugs issue in the state, Harsh Sanghavi said, “There is fear of police amongst the drug mafia in the state. If the police are working proactively, they should be appreciated. It is the responsibility of opposition parties to raise questions, but when it is about our youth and drugs, there should be no politics. We have to ensure that the youth of Gujarat do not fall into the trap of drugs.”
However, Congress alleged that the BJP wants to limit days of working in the House because they don’t want to answer people’s questions. “They are using their power to stop us and threaten us, but we will not stop. We will keep asking people’s questions,” a Congress leader said.
