The monsoon session of Uttarakhand Assembly was adjourned sine die by the Speaker Prem Chand Agarwal on Monday. The notable feature of the day’s proceeding is that the Congress MLAs stayed away from the House during the post-lunch session on the issue of Lokayukt. However, the House proceeded and after the day’s business was conducted the Speaker adjourned it sine die.
Earlier, as the question hour commenced on the day the Congress members were on their feet, demanding work adjournment motion under section 310 for discussions on Lokayukt.
Leading the charge, the leader of the Opposition, Indira Hridayesh said that the Government has been deliberately blocking the appointment of the Lokayukt. Besides the issue of Lokayukt, the Congress members Furkan Ahmed and Raj Kumar alleged that the Government officers are not picking up their phones despite the directives earlier issued by the Speaker to the Government on the same. The Speaker ruled out discussions under section 310, but he assured that the matter would be taken up under section 58 after the question hour was over.
Later, initiating debate on the issue, Indira Hridayesh said that the select committee of the House had submitted its report on Lokayukt. “But the State Government has been sitting on the bill,” she said. Participating in the debate, Kedarnath MLA Manoj Rawat said that the BJP had unleashed saints to raise the issue of Lokpal and Lokayukt while it was in the opposition. “But after being saddled in the seat of power, they are now conveniently dumping it into oblivion,” he said.
The agitated Congress MLAs later stormed to the well of the House while sloganeering against the State Government. Amid the pandemonium, the State Urban Development Minister, Madan Kaushik tabled the ‘Uttarakhand Urban Local Bodies Amendment Bill’ in the House after which the Speaker suspended the proceedings for lunch.
The post-lunch session saw the Congress MLAs boycotting the proceedings on the issue of Lokayukt. Speaking to the media persons, Indira Hridayesh alleged that the State Government has been dithering on the appointment of Lokayukt because of the fear of being exposed for its involvement in a host of corruption cases. She demanded the State Government to promptly table the Lokayukt bill in the House and start the process of appointment of a Lokayukt in the State. Senior Congress leader Pritam Singh recalled the BJP’s claim of bringing the Lokayukt bill in three months since it was elected to power.
During the post-lunch session, the House continued with its business despite the absence of the Congress members. Raising the issue of connecting villages with population less than 250 with roads, BJP MLA Surendra Singh Jeena demanded relaxation in the norm of population for Uttarakhand. He also demanded that the Uttarakhand Government should waive off the loan of the farmers on the lines of what the Uttar Pradesh Government has done.
