Prohibition, civic body bills in 3-day Assembly session

The state government will reintroduce the bill on prohibition with provision for death penalty and another bill providing for50per cent reservation for women in local self-governing bodies and making voting compulsory during the three-day winter session of the state Assembly. The assembly that was to meet only for two days, beginning Thursday, will now meet for three days, said Speaker Ashok Bhatt. The session was extended on the advice of the Business Advisory Committee of Gujarat Vidhansabha. There will be a question hour on all three days, Bhatt said. The Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2009, provides for capital punishment for manufacture, supply, transport and sale of spurious liquor if its consumption results in a death. The Bill was passed in the last Assembly session in the backdrop of the hooch tragedy in the city in July in which more than 130 people died. The then governor Naval Kishore Sharma sent back the Bill to the Assembly for reconsideration contending that the provision for capital punishment is contrary to IPC clauses and Central Acts. The governor’s advice notwithstanding, the government has decided to reintroduce the Bill in its original form, a government source said. The government may also introduce a bill to amend Gujarat Disturbed Area Act (Aashant dharo) that regulates sale of immovable properties in communally disturbed areas, said the