KOLKATA: Bengal will be the third state to implement Uniform Civil Code after Uttarakhand and Gujarat, CM Suvendu Adhikari said on Saturday.President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to Gujarat Uniform Civil Code Bill, completing the key legal processes required for the state to enact the law. In response to a media question about Gujarat being on the verge of implementing UCC, Adhikari said Bengal will be the third state to do so.Earlier, Adhikari had announced that public hearings will be held across five divisions — Presidency, Burdwan, Midnapore, Malda and Jalpaiguri — by the committee drafting the proposed UCC for Bengal.He had said that everyone’s suggestions will be taken and hoped that the work would be completed quickly. “Once I receive the report, if they say that UCC can be implemented, I will bring it in the assembly. That is my job,” the CM had said.A source said that a public notice inviting public representations will be out soon. “There will be a permanent office in Kolkata to accept hard copies of representations from people and rights bodies. It will also have a designated email ID for soft copy submissions,” the source added.The nine-member committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai held its first meeting on Sept 3 in New Delhi. The next meeting of the committee is likely on Oct 12.The other committee members are former Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy, IAS and Resident Commissioner Dushyant Nariala, retired IAS officer Shatrughna Singh, home department principal secretary Sanghamitra Ghosh, retired associate professor Dr Ratna Bhattacharya, former vice-chancellor Gopal Chandra Mishra, Calcutta High Court advocate Osman Gani Mullick and independent director of companies Nirmalya Bhattacharyya.