Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Aug 19: The Joint Select Committee (JSC) meeting of two Houses of State Legislature which was slated to be held at Srinagar today to decide the fate of Kashmiri Hindu Shrines Bill failed to take place as only four members out of 14 turned up for the meeting.
According to sources, four members, who turned up for the meeting included two from Lower House and two from Upper House.
An official spokesman said that the meeting could not take place as there was no quorum for it. The four members who were present in the meeting included Abdul Rehman Veeri of PDP and Prof Garu Ram of BJP both from Lower House, B R Kundal and Sham Lal Bhagat from Upper House. Besides Vijay Bakaya, MLC and lone representative of KP community in the State Legislature, who is the Special Invitee to the JSC, was also present.
Ruling out that the meeting can take place in near future, Law Secretary said that the members failed to turn up during today’s meeting due to which it could not take place. He said only four members out of 14 turned up for the meeting and due to lack of quorum it could not take place.
He said there is no possibility of the meeting taking place in near future or before the schedule of Autumn session of the Legislature beginning from August 25.
He said under these circumstances the Bill can’t be passed in this session of the House and as the term of the Assembly expires with elections due by ending this year, the Bill will lapse.
When contacted PDP MLA Abdul Rehman Veeri said that the Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Minister, Mir Saifullah who is also the chairman of the JSC failed to attend the meeting and he informed that he was pre-occupied with a party programme at Sopore. This shows that Government was unconcerned for the passage of the Bill, he added.
Prof Garu Ram of BJP said that chairman and other members of JSC failed to turn up in the meeting and so it could not take place as per schedule today. “This way the Bill was put into the cold storage as there is no chance of rescheduling the meeting in near future,” he added.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel