Shimla: The Select committee of Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha met on October 14th to study various provisions of Himachal Pradesh Ceiling on Land Holdings (Amendment) Bill referred to it during last monsoon session amid opposition walk out and protest seeking withdrawal of legislation as such.
Talking to HimVani, Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Secretary, Gobardhan Singh said that select committee comprising of State Revenue Minister Gulab Singh (Chairman), Suresh Bhardwaj (BJP-Shimla) Rakesh Verma (Independent -Theog), Inder Singh (BJP-Gopalpur) as members held its first meeting yesterday.
The committee studied provisions of the proposed bill to ascertain that amendments draft does not violate basic spirit and provisions of existing act. The committee has decided to call Secretary (Revenue) and Secretary (Law) on Oct 18, 2011 before it to put light on the each section and its purpose and to provide information as demanded by the committee
It is interesting to mention here that there is no member of Congress in this panel after demise of Prem Singh Thakur recently. During the debate over this issue in the last assembly session Congress leader in the state Kaul Singh (Darang) had opposed the Bill alleging that amendments would open floodgates for “plundering” of scare agricultural land in the state, which must be preserved for posterity and outsiders would purchase the land on the pretext of setting up projects and institutions..
