Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 gets President's approval

President Ram Nath Kovind with the President of the Republic of The Gambia. Pic/Twitter President of India

On Friday, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his approval to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which was passed by the Parliament in the recently concluded first session of the 17th Lok Sabha. On August 5, 2019, the Lok Sabha passed the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Bill 2019 with 370 members of parliaments (MPs) voting in favour and 70 against it.

Also Read: Major relief to the people of Jammu, Section 144 withdrawn

The revoking of Article 370 has stripped the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. Now, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will be two new union territories with J&K having a legislature and while Ladakh will be without legislature.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha after a little over seven hours of discussion between the members of the parliament and Home Minister Amit Shah. While the Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha a day before.

Here's what the revoking of Article 370 revoked means for Jammu and Kashmir:

On Friday, ahead of the festival of Eid al-Adha, Section 144 was lifted from the state of Jammu. Sushma Chauhan, District Magistrate, Jammu, while revoking the order said that the order dated August 5 issued under section 144 CrPC, within Municipal Limits of Jammu district is hereby withdrawn.

After Section 144 was revoked from the state of Jammu, people of Jammu can now assemble in public spaces. After the revoking of Section 144, all schools, colleges, and academic institutions which were earlier closed due to Section 144 can now resume functioning normally from August 10, 2019.

Also Read: Raj Thackeray hails government's decision to scrap Article 370 as 'Exceptional'

Earlier, the central government had imposed section 144 in the backdrop of the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.

People across politics, cricket, Bollywood and business industry welcomed the decision with open hearts. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray took to social networking site Twitter to congratulate the Narendra Modi-led government on its historic decision.

Thackeray hailed the government for scrapping Article 370 and called the decision an 'Exceptional' one.

Also Read: Article 370 Modi-fied, Kashmir special no more

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