Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday introduced the Assam Prohibition of Polygamy Bill, 2025 in the state Assembly, marking a major step toward outlawing polygamy and advancing social reform in the state.
The bill was tabled on the first day of the Winter Session with the permission of Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary.
In a related development, Sarma also tabled the report of the Justice (retd) T.U. Mehta Commission, which examined the widespread violence during the 1983 Assembly elections—a period marked by the peak of the anti-influx agitation from 1979 to 1985. Among the darkest chapters of this period was the Nellie massacre of February 1983, in which over 2,100 people were killed in a single night.
The government also made available printed copies of the T.P. Tewary Commission report, which investigated the 1983 disturbances, including the Nellie massacre. The Commission, headed by retired IAS officer T.P. Tewary, was set up on July 14, 1983, and submitted its final report in May 1984 to the then Congress government. Though the report was formally tabled by the AGP government in 1987, access had remained limited, with only one copy available in the Speaker’s office.
Following a recent Cabinet decision, both hard and digital copies of the report are now accessible to all MLAs during the current session, ensuring transparency and wider dissemination. The Chief Minister clarified that the House will not debate the Tewary Commission report.
— IANS