Guv sent registers bill to President, says Mizoram speaker

Mizoram Assembly speaker Lalrinliana Sailo on Monday said the state governor has informed him that he referred to President Ram Nath Kovind a Bill that seeks to detect foreigners illegally residing in the northeastern state.

The Mizoram Maintenance of Household Registers Bill, 2019, was unanimously passed by the Assembly on March 18.

Mizoram shares an over 700-km border with Bangladesh and Myanmar and the measures proposed in the Bill are intended to provide a credible individual identification system and to prevent "usurpation" of benefits of developmental schemes by people who are not bona fide.

Sailo told PTI today that he met Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi on Friday at the Raj Bhavan here to inquire about the fate of the bill.

"The Governor told me that he has referred the Bill to the President. However, he was yet to officially inform it to the chief minister or the assembly speaker," Sailo said.

According to the Article 200 of the Constitution, he said, if the governor has to return a Bill, it has to be done 'as soon as possible' after the bill was presented to him.

Meanwhile, the speaker on Monday again urged President Ram Nath Kovind to appoint a regular governor for Mizoram expeditiously.

Mukhi, who is the governor of Assam, has been given additional charge of Mizoram in March after the resignation of Kummanam Rajasekharan from the post.

Sailo had earlier wrote to Kovind on August 16 saying that Mizoram celebrated the Independence Day for the first time without a regular governor.