SHILLONG, Sept 6 - The Meghalaya Assembly introduced a number of Bills on the first day of the Autumn Session of the House today, including nine private university Bills to regulate them and ensure that they conform to a recent Supreme Court ruling.
Minister in charge of Education Lahkmen Rymbui introduced the Meghalaya Private Universities (Regulation of Establishment and Maintenance of Standard) Bill, 2019 to replace a 2012 Act of the same title. He also subsequently introduced eight other Bills � the CMJ University (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Techno Global University (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the University of Science and Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Institute of Chartered Financial Analyst of India (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Mahatma Gandhi University (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Martin Luther Christian University (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the William Carey University (Amendment) Bill, 2019, and the Maharashtra Institute of Technology of Meghalaya (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
The objective of the introduction of the Bills is to amend the existing Bills so that these conform to the Supreme Court observation passed in the case of Prof Yashpal versus State of Chhattisgarh.
The provisions of these Bills is to provide law for regulating the private universities by amending provisions in matters relating to �affiliation of colleges, off-campus centres outside the territorial jurisdiction of the State, off-shore campuses.�
Rymbui, who is also in charge of the Forest and Environment Department, introduced the Meghalaya Forest Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The Bill has now omitted bamboo as a forest product.
On the other hand, the Chief Minister introduced the Meghalaya Compulsory Registration of Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2019, to define the word �official� which would imply matters relating to succession, pension and maintenance of spouse.
Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, who is in charge of Parliamentary Affairs, introduced the Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya Members� Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2019. Under this Bill, the sitting allowance of legislators in the Assembly has been increased from Rs 600 per day to Rs 1,200.
The Deputy Chief Minister also introduced the Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya Members� Pension (Amendment) Bill, 2019. Under the Bill ex-MLAs will be entitled to draw a monthly driver�s allowance of Rs 10,000.
