Congress MLAs want House session extended
Tuesday, 15/07/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140715/punjab.htm#8
Chandigarh : Urging the SAD-BJP Government to extend the Punjab Vidhan Sabha’s Budget session, Congress Legislature Party Leader Sunil Jakhar today said here were several issues that his party wanted to raise and discuss.
A delegation of Congress MLAs led by Jakhar met Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal in this regard. Jakhar said his party was keen to raise issues of public importance such as drugs, power cuts, rates of sand and gravel, the meagre hike in the MSP for paddy, non-payment of scholarship SC students, the deteriorating law and order and corruption on the floor of the House.
Jakhar said that under the rules of business, the minimal period for which the House should meet in a year is 40 days. "However, now the House meets for only 18 days in a year. Because of the shrinking duration, most MLAs do not get a chance to put forth their viewpoint. Each MLA should be given at least 10 minutes to speak about the problems in his or her constituency," Jakhar said.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Mohan Mittal said the government was prepared to discuss any issue that the Opposition raised in the House. “We will not run away from discussing the agenda cleared by the Business Advisory Committee that meets tomorrow,” he said. Speaker Atwal said the Congress MLAs should have approached him earlier so that he had enough time to consider the issue.
Jakhar said if the government could not extend the session, it should reserve two hours each day of the session to allow the Opposition to raise important issues.
PPCC to meet today
Chandigarh: The Pradesh Congress will meet at the Congress Bhawan on Monday to chalk out a strategy for the Budget session. Partap Singh Bajwa, PPCC chief, said the meeting would be attended by AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmed and secretary Harish Chaudhary. It would discuss the impact of the Union Budget on Punjab, the “shoddy” anti-drug drive in the state, the grim power supply and the Chief Minister's admission that bureaucrats were busy collecting money.
