Saturday, 20 January 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Uttarakhand Congress has alleged that the State government is misleading the people on the issue of Uniform Civil Code (UCC). The vice president (Organisation) of State Congress, Mathura Dutt Joshi said on Friday that the BJP wants to serve its political agenda by continuing to linger on the issue of UCC. He said that the expert committee on the UCC has said that its report is ready but despite this the government is continuing to give extension to the committee and the draft of the UCC is yet to be submitted to the government. Joshi said that it is clear that the BJP wants to implement UCC in the State for its petty electoral gains. He said that the State government should not linger on the issue and should implement the UCC without any delay.
It is pertinent to mention here that the extended tenure of the expert committee on UCC is ending on January 26. The committee has not yet submitted its report to the State government. Now the government will either give another extension to it or the committee will submit its report before January 26. After it gets the draft of the report submitted by the expert committee, the State government will go through it and then the UCC bill will be tabled in the special session of the assembly. The move of Uttarakhand on UCC is being keenly watched by the union government and other States of the country especially the BJP ruled ones. The draft of the UCC prepared by the State will act as the template for the union government on the subject.
The Parliamentary Affairs minister Prem Chand Agarwal had hinted on Thursday that the government could convene a session of the Vidhan Sabha for UCC and grant reservation to statehood activists in government jobs.
Expert committee on UCC
Acting on his pre-poll promise made in 2022, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami constituted an expert committee on UCC in the very first meeting of the state cabinet. The expert committee constituted on May 27, 2022 is headed by retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai. Justice (retd) Pramod Kohli, social worker Manu Gaur, former chief secretary of Uttarakhand Shatrughan Singh and vice chancellor of Doon University Surekha Dangwal are the members of the committee. The committee has been mandated to examine all existing and relevant laws regarding marriage, divorce, right for property, inheritance, adoption and protection for implementation of UCC in the State.
