On concluding day, Assembly passes 3 key Bills without debate in 10 mins

The Punjab Assembly on Friday passed three key Bills without any discussion in just 10 minutes.

The Bills passed in the House were the Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Transfer of Prisoners (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2025; and the Punjab Regulation of Crusher Units, and Stockists and Retailers Bill, 2025.

A senior Congress MLA told The Tribune that hard copies of the Bills were not provided to them. The legislations were uploaded online. “We are not so tech savvy that we could read these online,” he added.

However, in the Vidhan Sabha, none of the Opposition MLAs raised the issue.

During the zero hour, Independent MLA Rana Inder Pratap Singh went to the extent of saying that when Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asked him not to speak on the Budget discussion in the House, he felt bad because he had studied all documents.

“But when the CM spoke, I felt as if I was speaking. It seems our rooh (soul) is one,” he said.

Before ending his speech, he said the amount set aside for the health insurance scheme for all would cover just 0.12 per cent of the beneficiaries.

Initially, he lauded the plan and asked the treasury benches to thump the tables in appreciation.

Later, he asked Congress MLAs to do the same.

Only his father, Congress MLA Rana Gurjit Singh, thumped the table, though Rana Inder Pratap’s pleas to his uncle Leader of Opposition Partap Bajwa went unheeded.

SAD legislator Manpreet Singh Ayali chose not to criticise the ruling party. Instead, he slammed the way the three Takht Jathedars were removed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in the past two months.

He drew the attention of the House on the need for framing rules for the appointment of the Jathedars.

On Friday too, when Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had hit out at Bajwa, most of his party colleagues were seen laughing at the jibes targeting their own leader.

The Congress attack on the treasury benches was meek during the Budget discussion, with its leaders seeking to know when the government would implement the promised honorarium of Rs 1000 per month to women.

BSP’s lone MLA Nachhatar Pal, too, had only praised the AAP government for setting aside 34 per cent of the Budget for welfare of SCs in the state.