Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday demanded minimum 40 sittings of Punjab Vidhan Sabha in a financial year, besides live telecast of the House proceedings.
The demand was put forth by AAP’s State unit co-president and Sunam MlA Aman Arora. He, in a letter written to Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh, demanded that minimum 40 sittings of Vidhan Sabha in a financial year be made compulsory as per the Constitution. He also demanded that the proceedings of Vidhan Sabha be telecast live on TV.
“Speaker is empowered by Article 208 (2) of the Constitution, modified and adopted the ‘Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha’ which were then published under Notification No 2, dated the May 2, 1952, in the Punjab Government Gazette. Under Rule 14-A, Chapter-IV of these rules, it has been laid down that in a financial year, there shall be three sessions, namely Budget Session, Summer or Monsoon Session and Winter Session,” he said. Arora said it had been further laid down that the total number of sittings in all the sessions put together ‘shall’ not be less than 40. The use of the word ‘shall’ in this rule shows the unflinching intention to compulsorily have minimum of 40 sittings, he said.
He said before 1969, almost every year more than 40 sittings of the Vidhan Sabha took place; but afterwards, the trend is very demoralizing. “In-fact, in 2015, the Punjab legislature held as low as 12 sittings only, exception being 11 sittings in 1971 owing to Indo-Pak war,” he added.
Arora expressed deep concern that with the passage of time, custodians of this august House and successive Governments have systematically undermined this mandatory provision requiring three sessions and a minimum of 40 sittings in a year to avoid discussions and debates over public issues on the pious platform of Vidhan Sabha.
He said another issue that can improve the functioning of Vidhan Sabha and its members is by ‘live telecasting’ its proceedings which will ensure accountability of its elected members leading to a more vibrant and strengthened democracy, which unfortunately has been denied to the electorate of Punjab all these years.
“This is beyond my understanding that if lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and State Assemblies like Delhi, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh can ‘live telecast’ their proceedings, then why the electorate of Punjab are being brazenly denied of their right to evaluate the performance of their elected representatives,” said Arora.
He said had there been live telecast, unfortunate and unparliamentarily episodes like exchange of verbal expletives between Bikram Majithia and Rana Gurjit Singh during the 14th Vidhan Sabha, brutal manhandling of AAP MlAs’ raising public issues and expulsion of Sukhpal Singh Khaira for doing live telecast of the adjourned House in the previous session, could all have been easily avoided.