UP passes bill to recover damage costs
IN ALL, 27 BILLS WERE TABLED AND PASSED BY THE HOUSE IN THE MONSOON SESSION. THE BILLS WILL BE SENT TO THE GOVERNOR
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh state assembly on Saturday passed several important bills, including the Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Properties Bill 2020 which empowers the state to put up hoardings/ posters of protestors at public places and recover from them the cost of damages to property.
The House passed the key bill amid protests by Opposition members who entered the Well with banners and raised slogans against the state of law and order, handling of the coronavirus pandemic and floods.
Once the bills were passed, the Monsoon Session, which was scheduled to continue till Monday, was adjourned sine die after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna abruptly moved a proposal for it.
“In all, 27 bills were tabled in the assembly and passed by the House. The average attendance of MLAS was above 300,” news agency PTI quoted Assembly Speaker Hriday Narayan Dixit as saying. “It took 60 to 90 minutes,” he added.
All of these bills will now be sent to governor Anandiben Patel for final approval.
The Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Properties Bill 2020 will replace the Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Properties Ordinance 2020 that was promulgated earlier this year in the backdrop of the anticitizenship Amendment Act protests.
The bill aims at dealing with “all acts of violence at public places and to control its persistence and escalation, and to provide for the recovery of damage to public or private property during hartal, bandh, riots, public commotion or protests”.
Senior Samajwadi Party MLA Mehboob Ali (from Amroha Assembly constituency) told PTI, “Never in the past it has happened that all the rules of democracy have been openly flouted, and the bills have been passed on Saturday. You can check the previous records.”
Among the bills which were passed were the Uttar Pradesh Public Health and Epidemic Disease Control Bill, 2020 and Cowslaughter Prevention (Amendment) Bill, 2020.