The second day of the special session of Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha saw less than par performance of ministers as on some occasions they fumbled to give answers posed by the members. The officiating Parliamentary Affairs minister Madan Kaushik was forced to intervene many a time to save the beleaguered ministers from the onslaught of the members. The government also felt the absence of the late parliamentary affairs minister, Prakash Pant who with his knowledge of the parliamentary procedures, calmness and tactfulness used to bail out the government from unsavoury situations on the floor of the house.
The transport minister Yashpal Arya was grilled by the BJP MLA from Salt Surendra Singh Jeena and others on the issue of delayed approval of many roads in the state due to which the insurance claims to the victims of accidents on these roads are getting rejected. Jeena said that there are hundreds of such roads in the state which have not been approved by the transport department even years after their construction.
He said that insurance companies deny claims when accidents take place on these roads. In his reply the minister said that in last five years joint surveys of 790 roads have been undertaken after which these roads were approved by the department. He claimed that there are 61 such roads in the state, the approval for whom is pending. The Badrinath MLA Mahendra Bhatt and Pauri MLA Mukesh Koli both belonging to BJP brought the minister on dock for long delays in approval of the constructed roads. Bhimtal MLA Ram Singh Keda said that there is road in his constituency which has not been approved even after ten years of completion. Yashpal Arya who also holds Social Welfare department faced discomfiture when both the treasury and opposition members demanded that the decision to provide pension (of the social welfare schemes) only to either husband or wife should be revoked.
The BJP MLA, Surendra Singh Jeena claimed that the social welfare department is undertaking recovery of the excess pensions given by it. The officiating parliamentary affairs minister Madan Kaushik intervened at this point and said that the no recovery of the pension paid would be done.