Raipur: Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikey has not signed the Bhupesh Baghel-led government’s Agricultural Produce Market Amendment Bill yet, which sparked a controversy between the governor and the state government.
The Chhattisgarh assembly on October 28 approved the 'Chhattisgarh Krishi Upaj Mandi (Amendment) Bill 2020' that declared the entire state as a market for selling agriculture produce to negate the Centre’s farm laws that allowed private players to directly buy produce from farmers. But the governor questioned the need of this Bill.
According to Raj Bhavan sources, the governor is seeking the opinion of law experts on this bill. However, this will not affect the paddy purchase, which has been started from November 1.
On this issue, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has also called a cabinet meeting on 28 November.
Meanwhile, state agriculture Minister Ravindra Choubey said, "We have not bypassed any law of the Central Government. It is expected that the bill will take the form of law soon. It is aimed at protecting farmers of the state from fluctuating market prices and payment risks.
"No one can stop the government with the majority. The governor had some queries which we will respond before the day ends. If we still don’t get her assent, we will together decide the future course of action," he said.
Under the constitutional rules, the governor can send the bill passed once back to the state government. After this, if the state government sends it through the cabinet then it becomes mandatory to approve it.
Apart from this, the Governor can send the bill to the President and wait for his opinion.
In past, there have been differences between Governor Anusuiya Uikey and the state government on different occasions.
- The dispute started with the reduction in the authority of the Governor regarding the appointment of the first vice-chancellor, first reached to the posting of the secretary of Raj Bhavan and then a situation of confrontation once again rose on the demand of the special session in October. In October, the file sent for calling a special session of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly was returned by Raj Bhavan, after which the dispute came to the fore. Raj Bhavan has sought information from the state government for convening the assembly session and CM Bhupesh Baghel has also commented on the Governor regarding the issue.
- Governor also raised objections to change the names of all universities in Chhattisgarh. When the delegation of the cabinet ministers of the state government came to meet him, they directly objected to this decision. She had said that universities are educational institutions and many batches of students have studied there, so changing the name of the university would be messing with the faith of that place. If new names are to be given, then new institutions should be created in order to do so.
- The governor had also cited the rules on the demand made by the state government regarding the changes in the grants coming from the UGC and university decisions.
