The draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation 2021, which gives sweeping powers to the Administrator to take over land and relocate people among others, will require ratification from the Home Ministry and the Union Cabinet before it is implemented.
A senior ministry official told The Hindu that it was yet to receive the draft regulations from the Lakshadweep administration. The official said the regulation was drafted by the Lakshadweep administration, and the Home Ministry had no role to play.
Home Ministry is the administrating authority for the Union Territory of Lakshadweep.
Any proposed change to the laws in the Union territory of Lakshadweep is to be brought through regulations, instead of a Bill as is the case in other UTs with a legislature such as Delhi and Puducherry. These regulations are then put up for public consultation and once the response is received it is sent to the Home Ministry.
“The Ministry will examine the regulations, and only after it clears them will the draft be sent to the Union Cabinet for approval. Till now, the Ministry has not received the regulations,” said the official.
The draft regulation proposes seven years’ imprisonment for consumption or sale of beef , and those who have more than two children cannot contest panchayat elections.
The draft was placed in the public domain seeking comments on April 28 and the last date to send suggestions was May 19.
Several political leaders, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to intervene and withdraw the new orders and regulations introduced by Administrator Praful Khoda Patel.
Mr. Patel, a former Gujarat Minister, took over as administrator on December 5 last year after the passing of Dineshwar Sharma, former Director, Intelligence Bureau.
