Assam Assembly Passes 36 Bills Amid Oppn Demands To Send Labour-Related Bills To House Select Committee

Framing or amending any law is a long-drawn process, but with the government taking up so many bills together, the MLAs are hard-pressed for time to go through these in detail: Congress leader Saikia

Thirty-six bills, mostly decriminalising offences under the respective laws but increasing monetary penalties manifold, were passed by the Assam Assembly on the last day of the Winter Session on Saturday. The bills were passed amid demands by the opposition for referring the labour-related ones to a House select committee. As Speaker Biswajit Daimary started putting up the bills for consideration, Leader of Opposition Debebrata Saikia (Congress) said framing or amending any law is a long-drawn process, but with the government taking up so many bills together, the MLAs are hard-pressed for time to go through these in details.

Noting that though the government has maintained that most of these bills are for ‘ease of doing business’, he said that the provisions sought to be amended deal mostly with the provisions that concern the workers.

“Experts and stakeholders in labour laws whom I have consulted have claimed that several proposed provisions are not in line with international conventions for labour welfare.

“I am not an expert on labour laws, but there are others here (members of the Assembly) who have more expertise. We want that the labour-related laws be referred to a select committee for further discussion,” Saikia said.

Supporting the demand, CPI(M) legislator Manoranjan Talukdar said ‘decriminalisation of labour laws is not acceptable’ and wider consultations are needed before these are passed by the House.

Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi, speaking on the same lines, said the amendments are serious and House select committee should ponder over these before the Assembly okays the bills.

He later staged a walk-out during discussion on the bills, alleging that he was denied a chance to present his views.

Gogoi continued to remain in the House even after stating about his walk-out, leading the Speaker to direct the marshals to escort the MLA out. The Raijor Dal leader then left the House.

Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha contended that a hike in the penalties will be problematic for the general people as their income has not increased in the same proportion as the fines are being raised.

He also pitched for continuation of imprisonment for offences under the respective laws, which was also supported by another Opposition MLA Aminul Islam of the AIUDF.

Both of them argued that a jail term helps in rectifying a person and also serves as a greater deterrent against breaking any law than imposing a monetary penalty only.

Ministers who presented the bills of their respective departments countered the Opposition by stating that provision for imprisonment for various offences is already available under IPC and CrPC.

Chandra Mohan Patowary, Pijush Hazarika, Ashok Singhal and Jogen Mohan and others said decriminalisation was being done to reduce compliance burden and promote ease of doing business.

They also maintained that the hike in penalty will serve as a deterrent and the amount of increase was justified as it was being revised after a long gap.

Each of the 36 bills– two new ones, 29 amendment bills and five repealing ones – was passed by voice votes.

The Speaker later adjourned the House sine die at the end of the day’s proceedings.

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)