The governor, however, has accorded his consent to the ‘The Hindi University, West Bengal, Bill 2019 and the West Bengal Lifts, Escalators and Travelators Bill, 2019’ on January 2.
The move came soon after JMM leader Hemant Soren took oath as Jharkhand chief minister for a second time at a grand ceremony.
As the farmers decided to stay back overnight, police removed tents put up for the protest. However, the farmers and their families, who had been staging the dharna during the day time for the past one week, refused to move in view of the cabinet meeting, police said.
The polling that began at 7 am in all assembly segments will end at 3 pm in five constituencies of Borio (ST), Barhait (ST), Litipara (ST), Maheshpur (ST) and Sikaripara (ST).
GoI’s effort at reaching out is important. But this should have been done much earlier, when the build-up of support and opposition to the Act was clear. Assam groups had expressed their public opposition to the earlier Bill as far back as 2018.
