The Uttarakhand Speaker Premchand Aggrawal adjourned the Vidhan Sabha sine die on Tuesday, drawing the curtain on the two-day special session of the House after the SGST bill was passed unanimously. However, the session saw heated moments with the treasury and the opposition benches trading charges against each other.
The state parliamentary affairs minister Prakash Pant tore into the Opposition, dubbing the issues raised by them as frivolous and below standard. “With the session having been convened to discuss matters pertaining to the interests of the people, what happened was that most of the notices given under section 58 during the zero hour are below par as they are constituency-specific instead of state-specific as expected,” Pant said in a swipe taken at the Opposition bench.
This statement provoked the Opposition MlA Qazi Nizamuddin into saying that it was a derogatory statement aimed at humiliating the intellectual capability of the Opposition lawmakers.
Undeterred, Pant continued: “During the zero hour, some MlAs raised problems being faced by the people of their constituencies. The spread of rabbis injection in the community health centres was one of the issues raised. A TB patient having died thanks to medical negligence was another issue raised. MlA Harish Dhami said that in Dharchula constituency, a connectivity problem was inconveniencing the people. Preetam Singh Panwar raised issued related to liquor shops. These are few instances which shows that the MlAs do not have knowledge about the matters to be raised under section 58. They raises these matters only to assert their presence and nothing else.”
Jaspur MlA Adesh Chouhan said that 25 trees had been felled sans permission. Taking note of it, Pant said that despite the matter having happened in 2015, he would enquire and then would answer.
MlA Nizamuddin said that as per the norms, the MlAs must submit their questions to be raised during the zero hour at least 20 days before the session commences. “The state government having convened this session at a short notice, the MlAs could not have got enough time to conform to the norms,” he said. Pant responded to it, saying that with the Vidhan Sabha committee being active, the matter would be referred to it. If members are unanimous on this point the government would consider it, he assured.