After power made an electrifying effect during the Delhi elections, issues related to it are expected to make the nine-day Punjab Vidhan Sabha budget session tumultuous, starting from Thursday.
The budget session, with six actual working days, is all set to witness fiery discussion on the wide range of issues with power and state finances set to dominate. Both Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have been demanding to extend the budget session to at least 25 and 15 days, respectively.
All charged up after party’s landslide victory in the recently-concluded Delhi polls, the principal opposition party —AAP — is all geared up to take on the ruling Congress on the issue of costly power and its failure to fulfill its promises, including cancelling the power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the private thermal plants.
Not wanting to be left behind, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has also chalked out its strategy to take on the Congress Government by raising the issue of power hike and power scams besides need to provide justice to victims of Behbal Kalan police firing case, coupled with the illegal mining and liquor smuggling.
On the other hand, the Congress Government may table the white paper on the state’s power scenario, which the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had announced to present before the House in the monsoon session to prove that the current situation is due to the prevous SAD-BJP regime that signed the PPAs.
High power rates, coupled with the PPAs, has put the State Government in dock with not only the opposition parties, but the Congress leaders too pointing fingers at their own government in the state.
Presently, the power is costing Rs 8.36 per unit in Punjab. Right from Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa and several other party leaders have openly demanded annulling the PPAs.
Already, Capt Amarinder had declared that the State Government would renegotiate power purchase agreements with private players. While warning the private firms against “messing with state finances”, the Chief Minister blamed the previous SAD-BJP government for the agreements, saying that these were signed by them to “defraud” the state and its people.
Ahead the session, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder, who is also the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), has convened the CLP meeting to devise the floor strategy on Thursday.
The session would commence with obituary references, followed by non-official business during which the discussion on challenges and opportunities in the promotion of Punjabi language will be held.
The state’s Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Wednesday announced that the State Government is “going to frame a law to ban songs and movies that promote drugs and weapons. The songs, which will promote the culture of Punjab, will be encouraged”.
Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal will present his fourth budget in the Congress Government on February 25, which is expected to aim at fulfilling the Congress’ pre-poll promises announcing some of the social security benefits.
SAD SEEKS 15-DAY SESSION
Demanding 15-day session to discuss burning issues like power hike and power scams besides need to provide justice to victims of Behbal Kalan police firing case, the SAD on Wednesday met Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh stating that the Congress should not run away from the debate and the opposition should be given appropriate time to take up people’s issues. Though a nine days session, there are only six working days.
After submitting a memorandum to the Speaker, SAD’s legislative wing leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said that the party had appealed to the Speaker to extend the forthcoming budget session to 15 days as presently, only one day had been kept to discuss the Governor’s Address.
“Congress Government should fulfill its promise to supply power to the people as well as industry at Rs five per unit. It should also hold an independent inquiry into Rs 4300 crore scam and action against the then Power Minister for indulging in corruption besides explaining why the Punjab Pollution Control Board had worked overtime to save private thermal plants from action for not installing anti-pollution devices,” they added.
Giving details of the memorandum, the SAD leaders said they had also demanded threadbare discussion into the pressure being put on witnesses of the Behbal Kalan police firing case to rescind from their statements.
Dhillon and Majithia accused the Chief Minster of uttering white lie by claiming that 11 lakh youth had been given jobs, while also questioning about the unemployment allowance of Rs 2,500 per month.
DEMANDING 25-DAY SESSION, AAP TO MOVE THREE PRIVATE BILLS
AAP, submitting the memorandum to the Speaker Rana KP Singh to extend the session for at least 25 days, on Thursday also proposed to move three private member bills — including ‘The Punjab State Liquor Corporation Bill-2019’ to rein in liquor mafia, ‘The Punjab Termination of Power Purchase Agreements with 3 IPPs Act, 2020’ to cancel the power agreements with power players, and ‘The Punjab unseating of members of Legislative Found Guilty of Conflict of Interest Bill 2020’ — during the budget session.
AAP delegation, comprising MLAs Aman Arora, Manjit Singh Bilaspur, Kulwant Singh Pandori, among others, stated that they raised three key issues with the Speaker, seeking his permission to introduce the three private member bills in the state’s interest during the budget session.