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Journalism of Courage
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has said that Governor Anusuiya Uikey should not sit “for eternity” over the Bills providing for 76 per cent reservation and that the Congress government is prepared to fight for the legislation in court if she clarifies her stand.
“What is the alternative? Let us have a debate! There are only three options (for her). Either you give the Bill back to us saying you are not satisfied. The second option is to send it to the President and the third is to keep it pending for eternity, till she is the governor. There is no fourth option of taking the opinion from a legal advisor because there is no such provision in the Constitution. The legal advisor is not bigger than the Vidhan Sabha (Assembly). The Bill was passed with the agreement of everyone, whether it is the BJP or the Congress or the Bahujan Samaj Party. Then she says it will not stand in court. We are ready to fight this out in court,” Baghel told reporters on Wednesday.
“Based on the court’s order, we set up a quantifiable data commission. Also, it is based on a quantifiable commission’s report that the central government gave a 10 per cent quota to the economically weaker sections (EWS). What other basis did they have to give the reservation? No basis! If we are giving 4 per cent to EWS, then we have a logic behind it, i.e the quantifiable data. This was passed by the Vidhan Sabha and they agreed to it on the basis of our quantifiable data. After this, no one should have any suspicion, but the legal advisor who is sitting in the BJP office is showing suspicion. So the questions being raised by her (governor) show that she wants to delay it (the Bills),” the chief minister said.
Baghel said on Dec 25 that his government had replied to all the 10 questions asked by the governor about the Bills. On Tuesday evening, police stopped around 2,000 people from the Chhattisgarh Sarva Adivasi Samaj 1 km away from Raj Bhavan as they tried to besiege it. Even though a delegation of 20 people was initially allowed to meet the governor over the Bills, she refused to give them an audience citing health issues.
Earlier this week, the new Congress state in-charge, Kumari Selja, said it was unfortunate that the governor was not signing the Bills. She said the party would take out a “maha-rally” on January 3 in Raipur to show the public support for the Bills. Selja also said that if the governor did not budge despite the rally, the Congress would approach President Droupadi Murmu.
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