With Statehood status not in sight, the J&K Assembly on Monday (March 30, 2026) began voting on around 33 private members’ Bills, including those on the protection of land, regularisation of jobs, and the return of Pandits. However, three Bills submitted by Opposition parties already failed to pass the floor test.
Those Bills that failed to pass the floor test included PDP legislator Waheed ur Rehman Parra’s Sheikh-ul-Alam University Bill for Pulwama; BJP legislator Balwant Singh Mankotia’s Bill on protection of temples and retrieval of illegally occupied land, and Congress legislator Nizam-ud-Din Bhat’s Bill on equitable opportunity of employment in the civil services.
“J&K’s successive governments, including the present dispensation led by Omar Abdullah, have ensured protection of temples, mosques, gurdwaras and churches alike,” said Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary, while opposing the Bill of the BJP.
The ruling National Conference (NC) has 42 members in the 90-member House.
Former J&K Chief Minister and Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti, who attended the J&K Assembly in the visitors’ gallery, described the private members’ Bills as the party’s bid “to rebuild the Assembly brick by brick”, in the wake of the downgrading of J&K into a UT in 2019.
