NEW DELHI: As the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill is set to hold the last round of meetings on January 24- 25, DMK MP A Raja on Wednesday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and panel chairman on behalf of Opposition Parties that the sittings be postponed to the 30th and 31st of this month.
As reported by this paper on Tuesday, Raja, in his letter addressed to panel head Jagadambika Pal, said that the Opposition conveyed to the chairman their inability to submit the amendments on such short notice during Tuesday’s meeting in Lucknow and demanded that the meeting be postponed.
The letter added that unless the sittings of the JPC is postponed, the purpose of the Constitution of the JPC itself will be defeated as it raises doubts that the secular fabrics of the Constitution embodied in its preamble itself are endangered and the due process in conducting the JPC is not followed.
The DMK leader said in his letter that the JPC’s tour programmes to meet the stakeholders at Patna, Kolkata, and Lucknow were completed only on Tuesday and the members were dispersed from the tour programme to their constituencies to continue their scheduled programmes earlier.
“It is very strange that the next dates for sitting of JPC were hurriedly announced without any formal discussion when the JPC was already on tour”.
“Even during the sitting of JPC at Lucknow itself it was requested by the members that the proposed sittings on 24th and 25th of this month are practically not possible as the members are expected to discharge their duties/programmes in the locality,” he pointed out.
The members are not in a position to recollect the evidences or materials in such a short notice which are essentially needed for moving the Amendments and discussion thereon, said the letter.