Bills were passed without sending them to subject committee to speed up process related to local body elections: Minister MB Rajesh

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister MB Rajesh said that Kerala Municipality (Second Amendment) Bill 2024 and the Kerala Panchayat Raj (Second Amendment) Bill 2024 were passed without sending it to the subject committee to speed up the process related to local body elections. The Minister was giving an explanation in the assembly on the point of order raised by Opposition leader VD Satheesan.

'The Bill was introduced in the Assembly as an Ordinance in 2019 and as an amendment in 2020. The Bill was left to the subject committee then and the assembly had discussed it twice, but it could not be passed. It is the same bill that was brought back without any changes. Minister K Radhakrishnan had discussed this with the opposition leader and reached an agreement. Ward division in block and district panchayats should be done after the ward division in gram panchayats. There are various steps to be followed. The governing bodies should come to power after holding elections in November 2025,' the minister explained.

Opposition leader VD Satheesan said that the procedure of passing the bill was thrown into the wind because of the opposition's protest. "This was the Modi style of passing bills in Parliament. A unilateral action was taken by destroying the tradition of the Kerala Legislative Assembly and destroying the democratic systems. The speaker should give a proper ruling in the incident, which was humiliating to the assembly itself," he demanded.
In the ruling, the chair clarified that it is best to pass all the bills, except the bills for the appropriation of funds, only after the consideration of the relevant subject committee or select committee. At the same time, it has been clarified in the ruling that since the procedures related to the elections to be held to the local bodies in 2025 should be completed in a timely manner, the situation of urgent passage of the bill should also be considered.