Legislations On Ayodhya Teerth Vikas Parishad, Private Universities Among Five Bills Passed In UP Vidhan Sabha

Lucknow, December 1 (TNA) Five Bills, including Ayodhya Teerth Vikas Parishad were passed during the ongoing winter session of the UP Vidhan Sabha on Thursday and decks were also cleared for opening of three new government universities. Yogi government had recently approved the proposal for formation of all three Tirtha Development Councils in the cabinet held in Ayodhya. Now to make it a law, the government had brought a Bill, which was passed unanimously by the House.

In order to promote religious tourism in the state as well as to provide better facilities to the devotees visiting major pilgrimage sites, a total of five bills, including the bills related to the formation of three pilgrimage development councils, were passed by the government in the Assembly on Thursday. This includes UP Shri Ayodhya Ji Teerth Vikas Parishad as well as UP Shri Devipatan Dham Teerth Vikas Parishad and UP Shri Shuk Teerth Vikas Parishad Bill 2023.

Apart from this, the Uttar Pradesh Private Universities (Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Uttar Pradesh State Universities (Amendment) Bill has also been passed unanimously.

However, other opposition parties including SP moved several amendments in these Bills and demanded to make local MLA and MP as members and asked to hand over the bill to the Select Committee, which was rejected after clarification from the government and all the Bills were passed.

Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh said in the House that the government has decided to form these pilgrimage development councils with the aim of preserving the cultural and architectural heritage of the three pilgrimage sites. This Teerth Vikas Parishad will be a corporate body. Its chairman will be the Chief Minister, the Tourism Minister will be its vice-chairman. The state government will appoint the executive vice-chairman of the council. Its member and co-convenor will be the Principal Secretary Tourism.

He said that principal secretaries of housing and town planning, finance, culture, charitable work, urban development, transport, environment, forest and climate change and public works departments will be members. The concerned Divisional Commissioner, DM including Chief Town and Country Planner, Vice Chairman of the concerned Development Authority and Municipal Commissioner will be ex-officio members.

Apart from these, principal secretaries of housing and town planning, finance, culture, charitable work, urban development, transport, environment, forest and climate change and public works departments will also be members. A donor who donates Rs 10 crore or more to Ayodhya Teerth Vikas Parishad can also be made a member of the council.

A planning and development committee will also be formed in this. The headquarters of the council will be in Ayodhya. Whereas anyone who donates Rs 1 crore can also be made a member of Shuk Teerth Vikas Parishad. Similarly, the formation of Shri Devipatan Dham Teerth Vikas Parishad will give impetus to tourism development in the entire area of Maa Pateshwari Dham. In this council also, those who donate one crore rupees or more can be made its members for three years.

The Uttar Pradesh State University (Amendment) Bill was also passed in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday. The government had also tabled this in the House on Thursday itself. Under this, the way was cleared for the formation of three more universities. These include Maa Pateshwari Devi State University Balrampur, Maa Vindhyavasini State University Mirzapur and Uttar Pradesh State University Moradabad.