Dehradun: As the Uniform Civil Code Bill gets tabled in the state legislative assembly on Tuesday, Uttarakhand Assembly Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya on Tuesday said that they are not against UCC.
Arya criticised the BJP for ignoring the rules of conduct of business in the House and alleged that the ruling party wanted to suppress the voice of the MLAs based on the strength of numbers.
"We are not against it (Uniform Civil Code). The House is governed by the rules of conduct of business but BJP is continuously ignoring it and wants to suppress the voice of the MLAs based on the strength of numbers," the LoP told ANI.
"It is the right of the MLAs to express their views in the House, during Question Hour, whether they have a proposal under Rule 58 or other rules, they have the right to raise their voices on various issues of the state in the Assembly," Yashpal Arya added.
Former Uttarakhand CM and Congress leader Harish Rawat alleged that the state government wants an immediate discussion on the UCC Bill despite nobody having a draft copy of it.
"The state government and the Chief Minister are very eager to get it passed and the rules are not being followed... No one has the draft copy and they want an immediate discussion on it... The Central Government is using a sensitive state like Uttarakhand for tokenism if they want to bring UCC, it should have been brought by the central government," Rawat said.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami arrived in the State Assembly and will shortly table the UCC Bill.
Earlier, CM Dhami said that it is a moment of pride that Uttarakhand will be the first to move towards implementing UCC. CM Dhami posted on X, "With the aim of giving equal rights to the citizens of Devbhoomi Uttarakhand, a Uniform Civil Code bill will be introduced in the Assembly today. It is a moment of pride for all the people of the state that we will be known as the first state in the country to move towards implementing UCC". The UCC Bill will be tabled during the ongoing four-day special session of the assembly, which began on Monday.
On Sunday, the Uttarakhand Cabinet approved the final draft of the UCC, which proposes uniform civil laws for all communities in the state.
Earlier, a draft of the UCC was handed over to the Chief Minister by the five-member committee headed by retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.
The UCC will provide a legal framework for uniform marriage, divorce, land, property, and inheritance laws for all citizens, irrespective of their religion.
The passage of the UCC Bill will mark the fulfilment of a major promise made by the BJP to the people of the state in the run-up to the 2022 Assembly polls. In March 2022, the Dhami government decided to constitute a committee to prepare a draft for the UCC. —ANI
