2 more bills passed, Gujarat Assembly session ends

The two-day monsoon session of the state assembly concluded on Tuesday with the passing of two bills — the Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 2011, and the Bombay Inams (Kutch Area) Abolition (Repeal) Bill, 2011.

The session started at 8.30am and continued till 3pm. However, it was not that lively as it was on Monday.

There were not many exciting questions asked and Congress MLAs didn't seem to be in mood to create any storm. Agriculture and animal husbandry minister Dileep Sanghani presented the Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 2011 in the House.

After discussion, the bill was passed unanimously.

Leader of the opposition Shaktisinh Gohil said in his speech that the state government had been compelled to bring in the amendment bill because of pressure from Maldhari community and religious saints and leaders. "The government should look into the roots of the issue of cow slaughter. The government should take the grazing lands back, which have been given to its favourite people almost for free, and give it back to people associated with animal husbandry and also Maldhari community. People are compelled to sell their cattle because of helplessness to feed the animals, as there are no natural sources like grazing land," he said.

From the BJP, Radhanpur MLA Shankar Chaudhary, Gadhada MLA Atmaram Parmar, Jethabhai Bharwad and Mafat Purohit took part in the discussion. From the Congress, Ramsinh Parmar and other MLAs participated in the discussion.

GPCC president and Porbandar MLA Arjun Modhwadia also spoke on the bill. He said, "Earlier, those who are now sitting in the ruling government had staged protests to save the cow, but when their government was in power in the Centre during 1999-2004, nobody bothered about bringing a national level bill in Parliament on the issue. On the contrary, they had promoted the meat export."

He further said, "Even the Britishers had made rules to provide 40 acres of grazing land per 100 animals but today there is no space for the animals to even stand. This government has given the land, which was identified for animal hostel by the Britishers in 1904 near Sanand, to the Tatas. The government should protect the Indian culture of cow worshipping."

Sanghani, in his reply, said: "The government is committed to prosecuting those involved in cow slaughter. We will never let anyone go after committing such an act. As far as the issue of promoting meat exports is concerned, I would say that it is the UPA government, which is imposing ban on cotton export and giving subsidies to encourage meat export." 

The Bombay Inams (Kutch Area) Abolition (Repeal) Bill, 2011 was presented in the House by revenue minister Anandiben Patel. The bill was passed by majority of votes.

Congress MLA from Rapar, Babu Meghji Shah, voiced his protest against the bill, saying that there are 1,153 cases still pending for the final settlement and the state government should wait till all these cases are cleared. Opposition leader Gohil and former GPCC president Siddharth Patel, who is also an MLA from Dabhoi, expressed their concerns over the issue. Finally, in the voting the bill was passed with majority of votes.

Before the assembly session ended, a resolution was passed, saying that the union government was supplying less amount of fertilizers to the state.