The Assembly on Wednesday passed the Bihar Medical (Amendment) Bill, 2017, amid din in the House in the post-lunch session.

The bill entails changes in a century-old law dealing with the registration of medical students. Till now, medical students after completing their MBBS courses used to register in accordance with the Bihar and Odisha Medical Registration Act, 1916. After the amendment, which will become effective after the governor approves, the law will be known as the Bihar Medical Registration Act, 2017.

A health department source said the amendment bill also changes the constitution of the Bihar Medical Registration Council. According to the old law, the council used to have a representative each of Patna University and Bihar University. Now, there will be no representative from the two universities in the council and instead there would be two representatives from the Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU).

"This change was done as all the technical institutions, including the medical colleges, are now under Aryabhatta Knowledge University and hence there was no meaning of having representatives from universities that don't have anything to do with the medical colleges," said a health department source.

When health minister Mangal Pandey laid the amendment bill on the floor of the Assembly, the Opposition members were busy raising slogans at the Well of the House against the government over the Srijan scam.

Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary repeatedly called the name of RJD MLA Lalit Yadav, who had earlier said he would move an amendment in the bill. When the MLA didn't respond, the bill was passed by voice vote.

The House also passed the Bihar State University (Amendment) Bill, 2017, by voice vote. It entails constitution of a Bihar State University Service Commission, said an education department source.

The commission would deal with all appointments in state universities, including of college teachers. The commission was scrapped in 2007 because of issues related to functioning. The state government was making appointments through the Bihar Public Service Commission but it was felt that a dedicated commission would help expedite appointment of college teachers. About 8,000 posts of college teachers are vacant in Bihar.

Another important bill passed was the Bihar Taxation Law (Amendment) Bill, 2017. After amendment, the minimum rate of 10 per cent tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) in Bihar would go because the state plans to impose 1 per cent tax on ATF used for flights that would operate under the Udan ( Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) scheme to enhance regional air connectivity.

Bihar has also signed an agreement with the Union ministry of civil aviation in which the state, to promote the Udan scheme, has promised to impose 1 per cent tax on ATF for flights operating under the scheme so that more scheduled and non-scheduled operators come to the state.

The amendment bill, which was laid by deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi who also holds the commercial taxes portfolio, also talks of changes made in the taxation rules made in the wake of GST from July 1.

The House also passed a bill which talks of approving excess expenditure by certain departments in the past, as well as a bill of the urban development and housing department dealing with water- and sanitation-related issues.

It took about 45 minutes for the Assembly to approve the bills as the Opposition was in no mood to debate their merits and instead remained busy in protesting the Srijan scam.