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Opposition members boycotted the second phase tour, which started on November 9 and was scheduled to end on November 14.
Members of Parliament’s Joint Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill pose for a photograph. (Image: PTI)
The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), which set out on a tour of five states, has curtailed its trip midway over the participation of the panel’s chairperson, Jagdambika Pal, in a BJP protest and the absence of parliamentarians from the ruling coalition due to ongoing assembly elections.
The JPC, which was announced to examine the Waqf (Amendment) Bill tabled by the government in the last Monsoon Session, visited Guwahati and Bhubaneswar and postponed the trip to three cities—Kolkata, Patna and Lucknow—until later when all members of the committee are available.
The opposition accused Pal of pursuing political interests over his participation in a protest against allegations of the capture of land of farmers by the Waqf board in Karnataka. Calling it a conflict of interest, all members of the opposition refused to be a part of the study tour.
Sources aware of the matter have told CNN-News18, “The opposition MPs had already boycotted the tour and many MPs from the ruling side who hail from the states of Maharashtra and Jharkhand and other states where bypolls are scheduled to take place, have expressed their unavailability for this particular trip.”
“Medha Kulkarni and Naresh Mhaske, both from Maharashtra, are busy campaigning. Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP from Jharkhand, is campaigning for elections in the next couple of days. Tejasvi Surya, Karnataka BJP MP and some of the other MPs of the ruling party are busy campaigning for bypolls in their respective states.”
So far, more than 22 meetings have taken place since the committee first convened in August 2022. The committee has already, in its first study tour, visited five states: Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka.
The committee is confident of submitting its report to Parliament by the first week of the upcoming winter session. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has earlier said that the intent of the government is to pass this bill in the winter session.
- Location :
Bhubaneswar, India
