During the second day of the Winter Session on Tuesday, the Opposition members appeared changing their strategy and strived hard to embarrass the Treasury bench by participating actively in the Question Hour.
Many Cabinet Ministers faced many embarrassing moments in the day and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister had to intervene for their rescue.
During the Question Hour, Congress MlA Navprabhat raised the issue of universalisation and eligibility criteria of old-age pension scheme in State.
Giving the reply in absence of ailing Social Welfare Minister Surendra Rakesh, Health Minister Surendra Singh Negi said that the State Government had decided to increase the old-age pension from Rs 400 to Rs 800 per month and minimum income criteria of eligibility was also raised from Rs 1000 per month to Rs 4000.
Negi also said that there were 485,389 verified candidates who were eligible for the old-age pension scheme.
Navprabhat then raised the propriety of including the income of sons in the pension scheme and large scale irregularities in selection of eligible candidates. He then suggested a random sampling of any village by any independent body or a committee of Assembly to check the authenticity of eligible candidates for the pension scheme. MlA from lansdowne Assembly Dilip Singh Rawat asked about the regularity of disbursing the widow and old age pensions.
In his reply Negi said that the pension was disbursed tri-monthly and the Government was working on online transfer of these pensions.
Intervening in the discussion, BJP MlA Ganesh Joshi raised the issue of non receipt of such pensions in the cantonment areas and reminded the Government that he was assured in the last session that special camps would be organised in the Cant areas to earmark the beneficiaries but not even a single camp was organised.
Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh said that some constitutional problems were detected in listing people of Cant areas for the scheme but assured that these problems would be removed.
BJP MlA from Salt Assembly constituency SS Jeena inquired about the details of the beneficiaries of the Gora Devi Kanyadhan scheme in his constituency.
He was informed by the Minister that due to budgetary problems the eligible candidates for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 were not disbursed the amount of Rs50,000. Raising a supplementary question BJP MlA Prem Chand Agarwal sought to know the overall status of disbursements under the scheme in the State and raised concerns on the elaborate and cumbersome process of selection of the eligible girls. He also added that the due to strike of Patwaris the last date of receiving applications under the scheme should be extended.
BJP MlA Puran Singh Fartiyal raised the demand of up gradation of Primary Health Centre (PHC) of Khetihan in Champawat district to Community Health Centre (CHC).
Health Minister SS Negi said that this PHC did not meet the eligibility norm of up gradation. Chandan Ram Das sought to know from the Government as to why doctors were not being posted at Trauma centre at Bageshwar despite the construction of the building.
Health Minister SS Negi said that a trauma centre needed at least 13 doctors for a proper functioning and due to acute shortage of doctors in State Health services doctors were not being deployed.
Rishikesh MlA PC Agarwal intervened and also raised the issue of Trauma centre of Rishikesh which he alleged is functioning as OPD only. Negi said that Health services would be improved with recruitment of 747 doctors and with the help of Rs121 million from World Bank.
In the post lunch session Haridwar MlA Madan Kaushik raised the plight of workers of Birla Power Solution limited laltapaar under Section 58 of Vidhan Sabha proceeding.
He said that 307 workers had not received their salaries from last 19 months. Participating in the discussion under this section MlA form Yamkeshwar Vijay Barthwal raised the issue of problems faced by the villagers situated near river Hinwal in the aftermath of disaster caused by cloudburst in the intervening night of 14/15 August.
The members of assembly paid glowing tributes to its former members Brahmdutt and lokendra Saklani who passed away recently. The house also observed two minute silence as a mark of respect for the departed souls.