UP legislative council refers nazul land bill to select committee
MLC and BJP UP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary asked the chair to refer the nazul land bill to the select committee for consideration
The state legislative council (Vidhan Parishad) on Thursday referred the Uttar Pradesh Nazul Properties (Management and Utilization for Public Purposes) Bill, 2024, to a select committee, a day after it was passed in the UP Assembly amid uproar by the opposition and reservations expressed over it by even a BJP member.
The opposition members had termed the bill draconian and anti-people. The Vidhan Parishad passed all other bills, including the Uttar Pradesh State Capital Region and Other Regions Development Authority Bill, 2024; Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill 2024 and the Uttar Pradesh Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024, which were passed by the assembly on Tuesday and Wednesday.
MLC and BJP UP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary asked the chair to refer the nazul land bill to the select committee for consideration. On Wednesday, when the bill was tabled in the Assembly, not only some members of the principal opposition party--Samajwadi Party opposed it, but interestingly a BJP lawmaker, an MLA of NISHAD party (an ally of the BJP) as well as Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) also opposed the bill.
The SP MLAs had rushed into the well of the assembly, raised slogan against the state government and sat on dharna in the well of the house raising demand for the withdrawal of the bill. Parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Kumar Khanna assured the house that economically weaker sections have been given relief in the bill.
The state government will take the points raised by the opposition into cognizance. The weaker section will not be evicted, he had said. “Under the Constitution, the nazul land belongs to the government the people cannot its ownership. No person will be deprived of the property if they have been allotted by the authority under the law. The people who have deposited money will get their lease renewed,” Khanna had said.
After referring the bill to the select committee and passing all other bills, the legislative council was adjourned sine die. On Wednesday, BJP MLA from Prayagraj Harshvardhan Bajpai had spoken against the bill.
“As per the law, the government has to protect the interests of tenants. In several cities, people have been residing for over hundred years. Majority of them are poor living in one or two rooms. They are called “Sagar Peshas”—the staff of the British officers who lived in spaces given to them near the officials’ bungalows,” Bajpai had said.
“On one hand, we are giving houses to the poor under the PM Awas Yojana, and we are evicting them on the other. This is not justifiable,” he further said.
