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Sports university of Haryana Bill referred to select committee
The reintroduced Bill carried a controversial provision (clause 6) which said no special provision for employment or admission of women, persons with disabilities or of persons belonging to weaker sections, Scheduled Castes shall be made on the ground of domicile
The Haryana assembly on Thursday referred the Sports University of Haryana Bill, 2021, reintroduced in the House on Wednesday, to a select committee on Bills of the assembly. The Bill was withdrawn on March 8 following an objection by the central government.
The reintroduced Bill carried a controversial provision (clause 6) which said that no special provision for employment or admission of women, persons with disabilities or of persons belonging to weaker sections of society, Scheduled Castes, and the other socially and educationally backward classes of citizens shall be made on the ground of domicile.
This was first highlighted by Hindustan Times.
Since the state government recently enacted a law providing 75% reservation in private sector jobs to Haryana domicile candidates, the provision in the sports university Bill runs contrary to it.
Congress MLAs BB Batra, Kiran Choudhry, Raghuvir Singh Kadian, led by leader of the opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, raised the issue of domicile when the Bill came up for discussion in the assembly on Thursday.
“The state government has gone in for reservation for Haryana domicile candidates in private sector jobs. But the Sports University of Haryana Bill says that domicile will not be a ground for employment or admission of women, persons with disabilities, weaker sections, Scheduled Castes,” Choudhry said.
Subsequently chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar referred the Bill to a select committee of the assembly.
The Bill was initially passed by the state assembly in August 2019 and was reserved by the governor for consideration of the President.
Subsequently, the Union home ministry, in December 2019, wrote to the state government citing a Union HRD ministry office memorandum stating that as per the University Grant Commission (UGC) regulation, the chairman of the UGC will nominate a member of the selection committee for selection of vice-chancellor of state, private and deemed universities.
In over five decades, this is only the fifth occasion when a Bill has been referred by the state assembly to a select committee for examination. Former Haryana assembly secretary to Speaker Ram Narain Yadav told HT that only four Bills have been referred to the select committee since 1966 when the first sitting of the assembly took place. Yadav said the first was Haryana Cattle Fair Bills referred to the select committee on June 15, 1967 and again on February 11, 1969. “The next were - Haryana Canal and Drainage Bill, 1973 referred on November 16, 1973; Indian Electricity (Haryana amendment) Bill, 1986 referred on December 2, 1986; and Haryana Lokpal Bill, 1996 referred on November 22, 1996,” he said.
