22-04-2025
One Nation One Election: From Maharashtra to J-K, parliamentary panel to go on 4 ‘study tours'
The joint committee of Parliament looking into holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, referred to as 'One Nation, One Election', will go on four 'study tours' in May and June to gather views on two Bills on the matter.
'The study tours will begin on May 17. We will cover Maharashtra on May 17-18. Then, Dehradun (Uttarakhand) from May 19 to May 21. We will cover the state of Uttarakhand,' P P Chaudhary, the chairperson of the committee, said on Tuesday, ahead of the panel's seventh meeting.
'In June, we will cover J-K and Ladakh as well. People from far-off places can also come in front of the committee. And then, we will go to Chandigarh and we will be covering a Union Territory and will cover Haryana and Punjab as well,' he added.
Chaudhary said that in a democracy, differences of opinion are good. 'Everyone has their opinion. There could be different opinions in the committee, too. One time will come when all the members will agree to it because all the leaders think for the nation and will agree for the nation's interest,' he said ahead of Tuesday's meeting.
The two Bills, called the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, were introduced in the Lok Sabha by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on December 17, 2024, and referred to the joint committee.
The last meeting of the panel on March 25 had seen Attorney General R Venkatramani and former Delhi High Court chief justice D N Patel tell the committee that the Bills do not go against the Constitution, with Justice Patel saying that they could undergo some changes.
On March 11, former Chief Justice of India and Rajya Sabha member Ranjan Gogoi had cautioned the committee on the constitutional validity of some provisions of the Bills.
