New Delhi, May 9
The Assam Government has decided to set up an expert committee to examine whether the state legislature can prohibit polygamy.
Making this announcement on the occasion of completion of two years of the BJP rule in Assam, state chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the committee will examine the provisions of The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1937 read with Article 25 of the Constitution of India, along with the Directive Principles of the State Policy.
“The committee will engage in extensive discussions with all stakeholders, including legal experts, to arrive at a well-informed decision,” Sarma said.
He said the state government was not going through the Uniform Civil Code process but wants to ban polygamy under a state Act for which it will seek the expert committee’s opinion. Sarma had recentlyalso launched a crackdown against child marriages.
Speaking on his government completing two years, Sarma said the past two years were the first since the Assam agitation of 1979 when the state did not see any agitations or bandhs.
“We have resolved most of the fault lines in our society. The last two years have been unique in our history. For the first time since the Assam agitation of 1979, we haven’t seen any bandh or agitation that can hurt the industrial environment of the State. We have witnessed minimal rhino poaching,” the CM said.
He cited Assam budget for this fiscal in which the state has announced a corpus of Rs 3000 cr to convert all members of self-help groups to micro enterprise so they can contribute to the GDP growth.
“This year we will promote two lakh active entrepreneurs by giving a clean subsidy of Rs 2 lakh each,” the CM said.
He said Assam has entered a very interesting time in its history.
“People of Assam have created an environment which is totally investment friendly. We have fixed everything through mutual dialogue and resolved most vexatious matters. Post Covid also Assam has not witnessed a single agitation which paralysed the lives of people. There was no picketing. All protests were held at designated places.
