Ranchi: The monsoon session of the Assembly on Thursday was a day of bills, as four were passed by voice vote amid Opposition walkout and two withdrawn, and barbs that touched a new low with urban development minister calling Opposition leaders deshdrohi.
The Jharkhand Municipal (Amendment) bill, Jharkhand Motor Vehicles (Amendment) bill, Bengal, Agra and Assam Civil Courts (Jharkhand Amendment) bill and State Commission for Scheduled Castes bill were passed by voice vote. But, The Jharkhand Finance bill and The Jharkhand Private Enterprises Employment and Domestic Workers (Exchange) bill, that were passed by the House in July and November 2017, were withdrawn over objections of the Centre and banks to the former and of the governor in the latter.
In case of municipal bill, JVM's Pradip Yadav proposed to refer the amendments to the Assembly's select committee (a multi-party MLA body). Yadav argued suggested amendments were not democratic, since they proposed an elected municipal functionary be stripped of his post if he was absent for six months or did not sit in board meetings for three months.
But, Yadav's proposal was defeated by voice vote. The Opposition walked out.
In the case of the commission for SC bill, the draft only stated that experts of SC issues would be hired as commission chairman and deputy chairman. But, BJP chief whip Radha Krishna Kishore, a Dalit, objected to this "vague" provision and demanded the experts be SC themselves. To this, chief minister Raghubar Das clarified on the Floor of the House that only Dalits would hold these two offices.
The finance bill, passed on July 28, 2017, was formally withdrawn on Thursday as the President returned it recently in wake of the Centre's department of economic affairs and India Banks Association objections to its vague provisions for share transfer, settlement of lease titles and Indian Stamp Act issues. On Tuesday, the state cabinet gave its nod to new inclusions to the finance bill that might be tabled afresh in the House on Friday.
The domestic workers bill - on rules related to domestic helps and labourers - passed by the House on November 23, 2017, was also withdrawn as the Governor had refused to approve it and asked the state government to include penalty for violators (read persons mistreating their servants).
CM Raghubar Das said the proposal to set up commissions to deal with problems faced by STs and families displaced by projects would be discussed by his cabinet. He said that the NTPC had been asked to give cash to displaced families in Hazaribagh instead of flats.
But, other than these, the House remained out of gear.
Four adjournment motions called by the Opposition over diverse issues such as victimisation of minorities, Dalits, tribals, among others, were rejected. On Wednesday's lathicharge on Youth Congress members, parliamentary affairs minister Neelkanth Singh Munda remarked " Agar koi kanoon todega to kutai to hogi hi".
When Leader of the Opposition Hemant Soren referred to BJP veteran L.K. Adavni's speech in the Lok Sabha on May 13, 2012 on Indian democracy's strength in its tolerance for conflicting ideologies, state BJP members demanded probe into land grabbed by the Soren family. Urban development minister C.P. Singh called Opposition MLAs " deshdrohi (traitors)". "All except Sukhdeo Bhagat (Congress MLA from Lohardaga) are members of Afzal's (Guru) gang," the minister shouted.
