West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari to review BJP government’s two-month performance, clear UCC Bill draft

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari will chair a key cabinet meeting on Thursday to evaluate his government's initial two-month performance. The administration is also projected to clear the draft Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill for the state

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari will hold a crucial meeting on Thursday with the top administrative machinery and review the performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in its first two months.

It was learnt that in the meeting, the Chief Minister is expected to take stock of the progress of the different development and welfare projects initiated by the new government under his leadership.

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The Chief Minister is also expected to review the current law and order situation in the state.

CM Adhikari, during the course of the day, is also scheduled to chair a crucial meeting of the state cabinet, and, according to sources aware of the development, the most important agenda of the meeting will be to discuss the proposed move to present the crucial bill on implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state.

“The draft of the UCC Bill will be brought for approval by the state Cabinet at the meeting today. It has already been decided that the final Bill will be drafted by a newly constituted committee headed by the former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai (retired). The new committee will submit its recommendations on the draft Bill, which will be cleared at the state cabinet meeting today, within the next four weeks. Based on the recommendations, the final Bill will be drafted and tabled on the floor of the Assembly in August this year,” said a source aware of the development.

To recall, while addressing the Assembly earlier on June 29, the Chief Minister said that the state’s tribals, indigenous people, Kurmis and other recognised ancient tribal communities will be kept outside the purview of the proposed law. In this regard, the Chief Minister clarified that the exception is being made following the model adopted by Uttarakhand and Gujarat.

The main purpose of the Bill is to implement a single law across the state, instead of having separate personal laws on the basis of religion. Once implemented, West Bengal will be the fourth Indian state to implement UCC after Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Assam.

BJP’s election manifesto promised to implement the UCC in West Bengal, and the new state government is now going ahead to fulfil that promise.