The DMK, accompanied by allies Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League, staged a walkout from the Assembly on Wednesday.
The AIADMK government on Wednesday reiterated its stand on the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and said that it will not be able to pass a resolution in the Legislative Assembly against the Central legislation passed in the Parliament.
Revenue Minister RB Udhayakumar, clarifying the state’s stand on the issue, stated that it might be unconstitutional to do so. Following this, the opposition party, DMK, accompanied by allies Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League, staged a walkout from the Assembly.
According to reports, Minister also informed that the house listing and housing census in Tamil Nadu, ahead of the decennial census scheduled in February 2021, will take place between June 16 and July 30 this year.
The issue was raised during the Zero Hour by Leader of the Opposition, MK Stalin, who also urged the government to not implement the National Population Register (NPR) in its current format.
Speaking to reporters outside, after staging the walkout, MK Stalin said that the state government feared losing its power if it passed a resolution against the Centre on the CAA and pointed out that three of BJP’s allies in the rest of the country — the Janata Dal (United), YSR Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samithi — are opposed to the CAA. He also said that the state government did not have the interests of the minorities at its heart.
Stalin also sought to know if the State government’s letter to the Centre, seeking clarifications on the NPR, received a response. Minister RB Udhayakumar said that a response was pending in the matter.
Earlier in February, the AIADMK government had written to the Centre, asking for certain details to be avoided in the NPR. A few days later, during a meeting in Madurai, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said that people can choose to omit the three new questions in the NPR. He also said that the NPR details in Tamil Nadu would be collected on the same lines as is done in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Source: The News Minute