Himachal Vidhan Sabha: Eight Bills passed, 5 debates held; Budget session concludes

Shimla, April 6

Advertisement

The Himachal Vidhan Sabha was today adjourned sine die on the conclusion of the Budget session.

Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Pathania said that the Assembly remained in session for 75 hours, during the course of 16 sittings. “The productivity of the Budget session, which had commenced on March 14, has been 93.75 per cent, which is a record in itself,” he claimed.

He said, “This was the first Budget session of the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. The House discussed for 19 hours and 51 minutes the Budget proposals for 2023-24 presented by the Chief Minister on March 17.”

The Speaker said that 639 starred and 257 un-starred questions were taken up during the session and eight Bills were passed. He added that five issues of public importance were debated in the House under Rule 62, seven under Rule 130, eight under Rule 324 while one issue each was taken up under Rule 63 and 67.

The Speaker thanked both ruling and opposition members for cooperating with him in the smooth running of the House and raising issues concerning their segments.

Sukhu, while addressing the concluding session, said that the financial health of the state was grave. “The results of the initiatives taken by the government for resource mobilisation will start becoming visible soon,” he added. He termed as a historic step the passing of the Bill to amend the Ceiling of Land Reforms Act, 1972 to enable the eldest adult daughter to possess land in her name.

Sukhu also announced the constitution of a committee under the chairmanship of the Speaker to strengthen and uphold the dignity of the office of MLAs. The issue of dilution of powers and protocol attached with the office of the MLA was discussed at length during the session.

Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan, Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi, former Speaker Vipin Parmar, MLAs Sanjay Rattan (Jwalamukhi), Trilok Jamwal (Bilaspur Sadar) and Bhawani Pathania (Fatehpur) are the members of the committee.

Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur criticised the government decision to denotify several institutions opened by his government. “The decision was taken on political considerations. The BJP will continue to oppose it,” he said.