Opposition parties in Punjab lashed out at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government after nine Bills were passed in the House on Monday, describing the exercise as a “display of majoritarian arrogance”.
The State Assembly passed nine Bills pertaining to various sectors, including education, infrastructure, taxation, and employment, rural development and environmental protection.
The Bill included the Punjab Common Infrastructure (Regulation and Maintenance) Amendment Bill, 2026, the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Un-aided Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Punjab Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Punjab State Outsourced Personnel (Transition to Contractual Engagement) Bill, 2026, the Punjab Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Punjab Protection of Trees Bill, 2026.
The House also passed three Bills pertaining to universities, including the Cloud University, Hoshiarpur Bill, 2026, the MS Digital University, Patiala Bill, 2026 and the Physicswallah Digital University, Patiala Bill, 2026.
‘Gross insult’
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Punjab president Kewal Singh Dhillon called it “a gross insult to Punjab’s legislative system and democracy”. He said passing Bills that could have far-reaching consequences for the lives of the people of Punjab without giving legislators adequate time to read, understand, and scrutinise is not law-making. “Rather, it is a display of the arrogance of the majority,” he said.
“If nine Bills are introduced in the House and passed immediately on the same day, when will any legislator read their provisions, when will they understand them, and when will they discuss them with the people of their respective constituencies?,” he quipped.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring in a post on X said: “On the very last day of the Assembly session, Congress MLAs were handed nine Bills this morning. This is nothing short of a joke with democracy. The government expects the Opposition to study, scrutinise and debate nine bills without even giving us adequate time to read them. This is not legislation, this is an attempt to bypass democratic scrutiny. Why is the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann so scared of debate? We strongly oppose this hypocrisy and this blatant disregard for democratic legislative procedure.”
Published – August 11, 2026 01:11 am IST
