The brief Winter session of Uttar Pradesh legislature commencing from Thursday is likely to be stormy as a united Opposition is set to corner the government on a host of issues like recent hike in power tariff, deteriorating law and order and the setback to trade and industry following implementation of Goods and Services Tax from July 1.
The opening day of the session is expected to witness noisy scenes in both the Houses.
Assembly Speaker Hriday Naryan Dikshit on Wednesday chaired a high-level meeting to review security arrangements to ensure fool-proof security around the Vidhan Bhawan during the session.
During the last session, Yogi government's first budget session, the recovery of a white substance from Opposition benches in the House created panic among legislators. The State Forensic laboratory added to it terming the unidentified material as a plastic explosive. However after investigation it was found to be a furntiture polishing powder.
On Wednesday, all political parties-- BJP, SP, BSP and Congress held respective legislature party meets to chalk out their strategy for the session. leaders of Opposition parties met to devise a strategy for cornering the government in both Houses of the legislature.
leader of Samajwadi Party in the Assembly Ram Govind Chaudhary said that the entire opposition would be united in the House and raise several people-centric issues.
During the Budget session, the SP along with other parties had boycotted Assembly proceedings, alleging that they were not being allowed to speak. later, they conducted ‘mock Assembly’ in the Central hall of the Vidhan Bhawan building to register their protest.
``We are ready to cooperate with the government and participate in debate on peoples’ issues, but the Treasury bench will have to take initiative and opposition members should be given the opportunity to express their view point," Chaudhary said.
Congress legislature Oarty leader Ajay Kumar lalu said, "We expect that the BJP government will not attempt to browbeat the opposition on the basis of its brute majority in the House.’’
Parliamentary Affairs minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said that the government was ready to discuss every issue.
“The government will not shy away from any matter but it is the duty of the opposition to cooperate with the government for peaceful conduct of proceedings of the House," he said.
The other bills to be tabled during the session are UP Excise (Amendment) Bill 2017, UP Junior High School (Payment of salary to teachers and other employees) (Amendment) Bill 2017, UP Basic Education (Amendment) Bill 2017, UP Prayagraj Mela Authority Bill, 2017 and UP Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2017.