Bitterness among the rival following their internal differences notwithstanding, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha session this time promises to be short and sweet. The already brief three-day session, comprising four sittings, has virtually been pruned to half with the ruling party claiming there was nothing really much to discuss or do.
Irate, the opposition parties — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) — have lashed out at the ruling Congress blaming it for running away facing criticism and discussing the issues afflicting the state and its people.
The session, which was to be held from December 13 to 15, has been curtailed to just two days. And in place of double sitting on December 14, only one sitting will be held, making it just two-day session with two sittings.
The first day of the session was adjourned about 10 minutes after paying tributes to those who have left for heavenly abode.
The decision was taken in the Business Advisory Committee, comprising representatives of all political parties in the House according to their seat share, amidst the opposition parties’ demand of extending the session further.
Dubbing the decision as the “cruel joke”, AAP MLA Aman Arora said that that Congress Government, which has failed on all fronts, is not willing to discuss issues of its poor governance.
AAP MLAs, comprising Arora, Principal Budh Ram, Prof Baljinder Kaur, Kultar Singh Sandhwan, Amarjit Singh Sandoa and Kulwant Singh Pandori, held a press briefing and lashed out not only at the ruling Congress, but also questioned the Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh for not abiding the House’s rulebook.
“We, as an active watchdog, would not let the government to run away from answering questions regarding its failure,” said Arora.
Referring to 14-A statement of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Rule Book (Rules), Arora pointed that at least 40 sittings are mandatory in a year, but the successive governments led by the Congress and SAD-BJP combine, did not even held more than one-and-a-half dozen sittings.
“Speaker Rana KP Singh is ignoring the rules and regulations of the Vidhan Sabha at the instance of Capt Amarinder. In the same way, the calling attention notices were thrown into the dustbin dubbing them as insignificant,” he said.
Principal Budh Ram pointed that during this session, around 250 questions have been submitted, out of which nearly 125 are by AAP, and the number of unstarred questions is separate. “Similarly, there were 23 calling attention notices, and through these questions and notices, AAP wanted to raise the issues related to the farmers, farm labourers, dalits, SC students, traders-industrialist, road accidents, unemployment, drugs, education, health services, water, environment, and even Bargari and law and order. But, the government is running away to face the same,” he said.
Prof Baljinder and Sandhwan said that if the government was really sincere about the people of Punjab, “it would have a debate on every single burning issue of the state so that it could be resolved”.
“Today's meeting ended in just 11 minutes after paying tributes, while chief minister Capt Amrinder himself had pointed that a day's session costs around Rs 70 laklh to the government. It would have been better if the next sitting was started after 10-minute adjournment,” said Arora.
Meanwhile, SAD announced to approach the Speaker to demand extension of the session by one week so that extensive discussion be held on the problems of farmers, dalits, youth and government employees.
“Congress party has played a cruel joke on the people and made a mockery of democracy by recommending the winter session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha be reduced to a single sitting, something which had happened for the first time in the history of the State,” said SAD president Sukhbir Badal.
Condemning the anti-people move, Sukhbir said that it amounted to cheating the people as well as muzzling their voice. “It is shocking that the Congress government is running away from discussion on people’s issues by curtailing the winter session to one sitting as per discussions held in the business advisory committee. As only obituary references were made today, one day is too less to take up people’s issues as well as pass bills as scheduled,” he said.
Sukhbir said that the former Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa had protested against this anti-people approach in the meeting of the business advisory committee and demanded the session be extended by one week to discuss emergent issues of the State. “We will take up this issue with the Speaker also tomorrow and demand that the session be extended appropriately,” he added.
SAD president said that it seemed the Congress government’s failure on all fronts was behind its decision to curtail the assembly session.
“The government does not want any discussion on farmer issues or promises made to the youth, discrimination being meted out to Dalits and government employees or destruction of peace and communal harmony in Punjab,” he said.
