Hindu News

Hindu News

Hindu News

Hindu News

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Two Bills Passed Amid Opposition Protest

Amid strong protest of Left members and a walkout, the Assembly passed The Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2013 and The Madras Hindu Religious And Charitable Endowments (Amendment) Bill, 2013, envisaging a new pattern for the number of members for the Travancore Devaswom Board and Malabar Devaswom Board, doing away with the changes effected by the former LDF Government.
Tearing off copies of the Bill while leaving the House, Opposition members alleged that the changes were against women, SC/STs and youth.
Doing away with women representation in the boards of Travancore and Kochi Devaswom Boards, bringing down the strength of members in the two boards from four to three, election of two members by the Hindu members in the Cabinet and an SC/ST member by Hindu MLAs in the Assembly, scrapping of standing committees, a provision making it mandatory to avail prior sanction of the government to frame rules, shelving a clause to entrust employee appointments in the Board with the PSC citing that a Uniform Board for Devaswom staff appointments is in the offing, extending the tenure of members from two to three years and bringing down the age limit from 50 to 45 years to become a member were the amendments in Bill, 2013.
Though Devaswom Minister V S Sivakumar maintained that the Law Department had given its legal opinion, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan (CPM) and Mathew T Thomas (JDS) raised objections and pointed out that the government had promulgated an Ordinance earlier at a time when the matter was referred to the Assembly subject committee.
The Opposition members also asked to table the legal opinion in the House.
Though Speaker G Karthikeyan reminded the Opposition that the legal opinion need to be tabled only just before the end of the session, the latter remained adamant.
In the Malabar Devaswom Board, after the adoption of amended Bill, there will be nine members, including a woman and SC/ST member.
 
source:newindianexpress.com

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