With the civic body polls scheduled to be held in December, the Punjab Government has proposed to hold the Winter Session in the last week of November, and that too for a short duration.
As the ruling Congress wanted to hit the ground ahead the crucial elections instead of answering the queries of their rivals in the Vidhan Sabha, the Government has decided to hold the session for three days from November 27 to 29. The final stamp of approval will be given by the State Cabinet in its meeting on Friday.
The Congress wanted to utilise the three-day session to pass significant bills and make some announcements.
Besides, the Government has also planned to take back the State legislators back on the benches studying the nuances of the House decorum. For, the Punjab Government is all set to turn a new leaf in its history of assembly sessions by holding an orientation course, especially for the first timers.
In all, there are 50 MlAs, out of total 117 in the present House. Among over 40 per cent of the MlAs, 19 out of the total 20 legislators are from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Out of the 50 fresh faces, 34 are below the age of 50 years. The Congress has 25 debutants, followed by the Aam Aadmi Party with 19 and the SAD-BJP combine with six.
The ruling Congress has 25 greenhorns, while the Shiromani Akali Dal has five and the Bharatiya Janata Party has one.
The orientation course was scheduled to be held for two days from November 20, to be organised at the Vidhan Sabha and also at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration.
Similar types of courses for the elected representatives were used to be held earlier where the Superintendent used to give lessons on the rules of procedure. In fact, providing training to the House members is a precedence in the Parliament.
The similar idea of conducting a training programme on the House proceedings for the MlAs was also mooted in the previous House by the then Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal.
In fact, during the first session of the newly elected House in March, the state Finance Minister Manpreet Badal had demanded that the legislators should be given lessons on the rules of procedure and conduct of the Vidhan Sabha.
Stressing on the need to give MlAs a grounding in the rules, Manpreet pointed out to the newly-elected Speaker Rana KP Singh regarding the declining level of debate in the House over the years.
He stressed that the MlAs should be informed that the House is not a political platform and it has set standards and rules which we have to follow.
The Vidhan Sabha official told The Pioneer that the orientation course was the need of the hour. “Such a course was planned during the previous term too, but could not materialise. But considering the unfortunate episode during the previous session where AAP MlAs were virtually thrown out as they did not know the proper procedures and conduct, we have decided to hold this session,” said the official.