What happened in Punjab Assembly
Punjab Assembly passed nine Bills in one day under the Aam Aadmi Party government. Opposition parties criticised the legislative process as rushed and alleged that MLAs did not get enough time to read and scrutinise complex Bills before voting.
Reportedly, the nine Bills covered multiple policy areas. The reported agenda included amendments related to common infrastructure regulation and maintenance, fee regulation for un-aided educational institutions, and Goods and Services Tax amendments.
The reported set of Bills also included provisions on outsourced personnel transitioning to contractual engagement, Panchayati Raj amendments, and a Bill for protection of trees. The reported list additionally included university-related proposals: Cloud University (Hoshiarpur), MS Digital University (Patiala), and Physicswala University (Patiala).
BJP’s Punjab president Kewal Singh Dhillon alleged that the process was insulting to Punjab’s legislative system and democracy and argued that legislators did not receive sufficient time to read and scrutinise complex Bills.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring alleged that the Punjab Assembly process involved handing nine Bills to MLAs on the last day of the session and compared the process to “a joke with democracy”.
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