Model federalist: Prez Kovind okays 14 state bills in 3 months

New Delhi: True to the spirit of cooperative federalism, President Ramnath Kovind has cleared as many as 14 bills of different state governments within just three months of taking office. All these bills had been kept pending for several years.

The assemblies of Karnataka, Haryana, Gujrat, Jharkhand, Kerala, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Ppradesh and Rajasthan had passed these bills for the development of their states. These bills were sent for the assent of the President as required under Article 200 read with Article 254(2) and Article 201 of the Constitution.

These bills were given assent from the month of August to 24th October this year. The last one to be given assent by the President was the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which envisaged regularisation of dwelling places for landless agricultural labourers of the state.

This will boost the morale of the state government before the Assembly polls. While passing the Bill, Karnataka Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa said that it was necessary to amend the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961, to provide ownership rights of such houses to landless agriculture labourers. The President has also given his assent to another much sought after Bill by the ruling Left Democratic Alliance government of Kerala to enhance minimum wages for the state, which will now be the highest in the country — Rs 600 per day.

This is more than the MNERAGA wages. In the month of September, the President gave assent to the Rajasthan Rent Control Amendment Act passed by the Vasundhara Raje Government. But during the debate, BJP MLA from Kota Prahlad Gunjal put the government on the dock by alleging that the amendments would introduce a lot of discrepancies and pieces of the draft need a serious check.

In the same month, President Kovind assented to a legislative bill of the Gujarat government that envisages the production of undertrial prisoners in courts through video conference instead of their physical Production through amendments in the Criminal Procedure Code. This will reduce the expenditure of the state department for producing a prisoner in court during the hearing of a case.

The President had approved a much waited bill of West Bengal's TMC Government to tighten laws for the settlement of industrial disputes. The Bill raised the penalty for falure to comply with the decisions of labour courts and industrial tribunals, expecting it to work as a deterent.

The President assented a similar bill of the Jharkhand Government among other important bills of other states.