Chandigarh: The Co-President of Aam Aadmi Party Aman Arora along with party MLAs Kulatar Singh Sandhwan, Adv. Harpal Cheema and Legal Cell head Jastej Singh today gave a memorandum to the speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha to request him to increase the number of proposed sittings for upcoming budget session to at least 20.
In his letter, Arora said that a representation dated 24.10.2017 was submitted to the speaker emphasizing using the pious platform of Vidhan Sabha for raising and discussing the critical issues bothering Punjab by strict adherence to Chapter-IV Rule 14-A of ‘Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha’ which emphatically provides for at-least 40 sittings in a year. He said that prior to the year 1997 nearly 25 sittings used to take place in a year but gradually this platform for raising the voice of common man was systematically killed by having even fewer numbers of sittings. Even the current Government during the first year i.e. 2017 conducted 14 sittings in the entire year because of which discussions on the burning issues of Punjab could not take place.
Arora said that the recent schedule of the upcoming budget session shows that only 7 effective sittings will take place. It is pertinent to mention that Budget session is the most important session that takes place in a year and in addition to raising vital issues such as farmers suicides, unemployment, traders issues, illegal mining, Punjab’s dwindling economy, mafia raj, education, health systems and other significant aspects, the budget allocation for various projects and schemes. He said with only 7 effective sittings, such burning issues cannot be firmly taken up and discussed. It is equally pertinent to mention herein that if the demand of the opposition is acceded to and 20 sittings takes place in this budget session, then it will also go a long way in achieving the target of 40 sittings in a year as contemplated in Chapter-IV Rule 14-A of ‘Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha’.
Arora said that in January 2016, S. Charanjit Singh Channi, presently Cabinet Minister and the then Leader of Opposition, had requested the then Speaker to have at-least 40 sittings of Vidhan Sabha in a year. But it seems that when it comes to walking the talk, the present Congress Government has forgotten its demand that it raised when it was in opposition.He said that considering the seriousness of the situation, it was requested that sittings for the upcoming budget session must be increased to 20 so that the MLAs could perform their duty of raising the concerns of people of Punjab in the Vidhan Sabha.
