Pushkar Singh Dami, Uttarakhand Chief Minister, on Friday, said “promised” Uniform Civil Code for the state is “almost ready”. Mr. Dami has formed a committee for drafting the Uniform Civil Code with Ranjana Prakash Desai, former Supreme Court Judge, as the head.
Mr. Dami told the reporters that the compilation and drafting works of the Uniform Civil Code is almost complete and steps regarding its implementation will soon begin after the draft was submitted.
One of the major poll promise made by the Bharatiya Janata Party in their run-up to the state assembly election, which was held last year in Uttarakhand is the Uniform Civil Code. The committee for drafting the Uniform Civil Code have five members.
The first extension was of six months starting from November 2022. The second extension was of four months. The committee”s tenure was extended for the third time recently till December this year. The committee has taken the opinion of nearly 2.33 lakh people.
The former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and senior Congress leader, Harish Rawat earlier said that he warned the interim government in Uttarakhand that Uniform Civil Code could not be implemented on the “innocent and peaceful people of the Himalayan State”.
The opposition party had questioned the Pushkar Singh Dami government regarding the Uniform Civil Code being “untraceable” even after three months since the retired Supreme Court Judge, who is the head of the UCC drafting committee declared the draft had went for “printing” three months back.
Congress has also accused the Bharatiya Janati Party was bringing forth the Uniform Civil Code to polarise the votes in the State. Uttarakhand have 2.9 percentage of Scheduled Tribes from the total population. And from this 2.9 percentage only two seats were reserved for the ST community.
These two seats us occupied by Congress. One of the MLA, Pritam Singh says the UCC did not receive green signal from the tribal community of the State.
The BJP led Uttarakhand government formed the drafting committee of Uniform Civil Code in June last year. The committe was formed to discuss the possibilities and ways for implementing the Uniform Civil Code in the state.
So far the committee has met for over 63 times and had met with around 20,000 people personally and through platforms.
With inputs from agencies.