Assembly session at Gairsain: Speaker

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 17

Despite the National Green Tribunal reprimanding  Uttarakhand for carrying out construction of a new Assembly building at Bhararisain (in Gairsain Chamoli) without the mandatory clearances, the Assembly session will kick off from December 7 at Bhararisain, Speaker Prem Chand Aggarwal has said on Friday.

Yesterday, the country’s Green Court had contended that the construction activity was initiated at Gairsain without obtaining environment clearances. “There is no move to postpone or plan to hold the Assembly session elsewhere. It would be held at Gairsain as our officers are already engaged in the preparations for holding the session,” said Aggarwal, who returned to office today after a foreign tour.

Aggarwal said that the court has raised some objections about fulfilling certain provisions, which are already being looked into. “Since, I took over in March no new construction activity has taken place at Gairsain. Now, whatever new construction activity is started, it would be within the norms,” he said.

Significantly, Aggarwal also rejected the Leader of the Opposition Indira Hiryadesh’s claims that the opposition was not taken into confidence while calling off the last budget session. As a result, the opposition had announced that it would not attend the Business Advisory Committees meeting for discussing the agenda for the upcoming Assembly session at Gairsain. “Whatever, we did was within the rules, there was no need for coming up with a new business agenda and seek prior approval, as the house was adjourned the same day,” said Aggarwal.

He also reiterated that no attempts were being made to suppress the voice of the opposition. “The House can only function with the collective support of the government and the opposition. Both the government and the opposition have equal responsibility for ensuring that the House runs smoothly,” he stressed.