DEHRADUN: On the second day of the supplementary budget session, two important bills were passed by voice vote in the Uttarakhand Assembly.
After the passage of the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill 2022, a provision has been made for a strict law regarding religious conversion in the state. Apart from this, the Uttarakhand Public Service (Horizontal Reservation of Women) Bill 2022 will once again implement the system of 30 percent horizontal reservation for women in the state.
The state government had a few days ago decided to strengthen the anti-conversion law, which provided for a 10-year jail term, declaring forced conversion a cognizable offence. With the passage of these bills in the Assembly on Wednesday, a notification to implement them in the state will be issued soon.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said, "Uttarakhand is devbhoomi, things like conversion are very fatal for us, so the government had decided that strict laws should be made to ban religious conversion in the state". He said that it is the endeavour of the state government to implement this law in the state with full determination.
Regarding the Horizontal Reservation Bill for women in Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Dhami said, "The women of the state have a huge contribution in the creation of Uttarakhand and the government had already decided that they should get the benefit of this horizontal reservation while respecting the mother-power in this state with heterogeneous geographical conditions".