Ten-day Himachal Vidhan Sabha session likely to be a stormy affair

Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 26

The 10-day monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha, beginning tomorrow, is likely to be stormy with opposition BJP gunning for the state government over its decision to withdraw subsidies on power, water and closure of educational institutions.

This probably being the longest monsoon session with a total of 10 sittings, the BJP will have ample time to grill the government over all these issues. The session will conclude on September 10. The legislature party meetings of both the Congress and BJP will be held late tonight today to chalk out their strategy.

The Assembly will be in session for the first time after the cross voting in the Rajya Sabha elections on February 27 earlier this year and the subsequent political upheaval. The House will have six new legislators. Two former Congress legislators, Sudhir Sharma and ID Lakhanpal and an Independent MLA Ashish Sharma will now be part of the BJP, with their tally going up to 28.

The poor financial health of the state adversely impacting development works and general functioning of the government is another issue which is likely to echo during the session. The unrest among the government employees over delay in grant of Dearness Allowance (DA) and other pending arrears is an issue which the BJP will raise vociferously.

“The issues like development works getting impacted despite raising of loans, withdrawal of subsidies, imposing taxes and deteriorating law and order situation of the state are some issues which we will raise during the session,” said Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur. He said the BJP legislators have given notice for debate on all such critical issues so that a debate can be held in the House.

One issue on which the BJP will target the Sukhu-led Congress regime is over delay in undertaking of restoration work of the damaged roads, bridges and other infrastructure not just this year but also the ones which suffered damage during monsoons last year.

The Congress, on the other hand, will accuse the Modi regime of not coming to the rescue despite unprecedented damages suffered last monsoon and this year as well.

“We are still awaiting the grant of over Rs 900 crore Post Disaster Assessment Needs (PDNA) due to damages suffered last monsoon from the Centre. Notwithstanding the financial constraints, we have tried to provide enhanced relief for all sorts of damages to the people from our own kitty,” said Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

The Vidhan Sabha secretariat has already received nearly 800 questions (600 starred and 200 unstarred) from the legislators. Apart from this, five legislators, including Leader of Opposition, have sought debate under Rule 130 on the total damages suffered by Himachal this monsoon.

The government will also table Bills for making the law more stringent against child marriage and also for enhancing the age of girl’s marriage from 18 to 21 years.