The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) may find itself in line of fire not just from foes, but even “friends”, during the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Monsoon Session starting from Friday, September 18.
Not just the Congress legislators, but two of its own “allied” legislators are expected to train their guns at the ruling alliance during the five-day Assembly Session.
Currently, the SAD-BJP combine Government is under attack of the BJP MlA Navjot Kaur Sidhu and Akali MlA Inderbir Singh Bolaria — the Chief Parliamentary Secretaries in the Government.
While Navjot Kaur had been raising her voice against the government alleging “lopsided” development — a charge vehemently denied by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Bolaria is currently staging protest against his own government over setting up of a waste disposal plant in Amritsar. However, efforts are on to subdue their protests ahead of assembly session.
At the same time, the Congress party, which is currently struggling with the internal strife and leadership crisis in the state, may also find it tough to take on the treasury benches,
Amidst the reports that the party high command is seriously mulling over replacing Sunil Kumar Jakhar from the post of Congress legislative Party (ClP) leader as a part of its restructuring exercise in the state, the hopeful MlAs may be seen attacking the ruling alliance with full force.
Congress party would target the government on the issues of drug menace, farming crisis, law and order, declining industrial scene, among other things.
To counter it, the SAD-BJP government would highlight its initiatives for the common man, farmers, and issues concerning law and order.
“The government is doing so much on development front in both rural and urban areas, and for industries. The recent tours by Deputy Chief Minister and Industries Minister abroad and to other cities of the country have yielded fruitful results,” a senior SAD leader told The Pioneer.
ClP leader Jakhar said that the party is all geared up to take on the SAD-BJP government. “We have lot of issues lined up and this short session would not help in addressing them all. Farmers are in crisis with mounting debt and the recent whitefly attack, law and order is pathetic. Moreover, leaders from the ruling combine are found involved in drug cases,” he said.
To devise the floor strategy, both the ruling and opposition parties would meet on Friday after the day’s session.
leader of the House Badal has convened a joint meeting of SAD-BJP MlAs on Friday to chalk out government’s strategy for the session.
“The agenda for the session, in particular, and some other matters related therewith will be discussed in the meeting,” said the general secretary of the SAD legislature party Sarwan Singh Phillaur. He requested all the members of both the SAD and BJP to attend the meeting well in time.
The five-day session, between September 18 and 24, will have four sittings, with September 19, 20 and 23 being holidays.
As per the tentative programme released by Punjab Vidhan Sabha Secretariat on Wednesday, the session would meet on Friday afternoon and there would be just obituary references.
After two days holidays, the House would meet on Monday afternoon for legislative business, followed by legislative business on Tuesday. After a day’s holiday, the House will again meet on Thursday afternoon for non-official business before being adjourned sine-die.
OFFICERS ASKED TO SUBMIT REPlY TO WITHIN 48 HOURS
The Punjab Government has issued directions to the officers’ of all departments to submit replies at the earliest of questions being taken up during the legislature Assembly Session.
Official spokesperson said that some departments have still not provided the replies to Vidhan Sabha, despite repeated reminders.
He said that the Punjab legislative Assembly has also brought to the notice of the Punjab Government according to which the Vidhan Sabha Speaker has extended the time for the submission of these replies but despite extension, no reply was received by the Vidhan Sabha in the extended period.
Besides, the replies of questions that were shifted in to CU (converted to unstarred) list have also not been received.