The 5th session of the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly which began on Friday came to an end on Monday after passing two important Bills – the Manipur People’s Bill 2018 and Manipur International University Bill, 2018 while Manipur Liquor Prohibition (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 was referred to a 5-member Select Committee where the Law Minister is the chairman.
At the end of the session, Assembly Speaker Yumnam Khemchand announced that the Monsoon Session had two sittings, 8 starred questions, 3 unstarred, 4 calling attentions, 7 papers were laid, 4 obituary references’, 3 Government Bills tabled, 2 Bills were passed and 1 Bill was referred to Select Committee and 4 Committee reports were presented and 2 resolutions were taken by the House.
Interestingly, the Manipur People’s Protection Bill, 2018 which was introduced by Chief Minister and leader of the House N Biren on Friday was passed unanimously by the House as reported by the Hill Areas Committee(HAC) in the day’s session.
On Friday, the Bill was referred to the HAC for consideration. The Assembly unanimously passed the Manipur International University Bill, 2018 which was introduced by Education Minister Th Radheshyam on July 20, 2018.
On the other hand, the Manipur Liquor Prohibition (Second amendment) Bill, 2018 was referred to the Select Committee which would comprise Law Minister as the chairman and two members each from Treasury/Ruling and Opposition Party.
In his observation, Opposition leader and congress legislature leader O Ibobi Singh said his party would not give moral support to the Bill while Chief Minister N Biren Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar sought cooperation from all quarters as the Bill aims to control the quality of the local liquor and export it to outside the State. The revenue generation is secondary, they said. But there is no way of lifting the prohibition which was imposed in the State since 1991.
However, the House resolved to withdraw two Bills namely, the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015 which were passed by the House on August 31, 2015.
Speaker Y Khemchand Singh also announced election of the three Financial Committees, 2018-19 of the Manipur Legislative Assembly. The three Financial Committees’ are Committee on Public Accounts,Committee on Estimates and Committee on Public Undertakings.