The issue of short duration of assembly sessions was raised loudly by the opposition Congress in the House. The opposition’s objection was that the sessions of Uttarakhand Assembly are running for the shortest time in the country. This is much behind the average. This is not in accordance with the sentiments of the state agitators. There should be three sessions of the Assembly in a year, whose total duration should be 60 days. Also, the government was accused of doing this to avoid questions. On behalf of the government, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said that the duration of the sessions is decided on the basis of business. Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan said that she also wants that there should be more sub-sessions in the session, but it all depends on the business. Along with this, she rejected the legitimacy of the point of order brought by the opposition in this regard.
Duration of sessions not fixed as per rules
As soon as the Question Hour ended in the Assembly session on Thursday, Congress MLA Qazi Nizamuddin raised a question of order and said that the duration of sessions is not being fixed as per the rules of the Assembly. Citing the research of an institution, he said that in the year 2017-2023, the average duration of sessions of the Legislative Assemblies of all the states of the country was 22 days, but Uttarakhand is at the lowest level in this too. The state assembly ran for eight days in the year 2022, 10 days in 2023 and four days in the year 2024. The situation is that the budget is also being passed in a single day.
Continuous reduction in the duration of sessions is unfortunate
Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya said that continuous reduction in the duration of sessions is unfortunate. He said that the MLAs have asked 500 questions for this session, how will they be answered in three days. He also questioned why the government wants to avoid the questions of the MLAs. The Leader of Opposition, referring to the assembly sessions held in the last three years, said that these were never started from Monday. He said that Monday is related to the questions of the Chief Minister’s departments and the Chief Minister has 40 departments.
The duration of the session is decided on the basis of business
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Premchand Agarwal said that the ideal situation is that there should be three sub-sessions of the assembly in a year, whose duration is 60 days. He said that the duration of the session is decided on the basis of business. The intention of the government is clear that the proceedings of the House should continue. Assembly Speaker Khanduri said from the bench that she also wants that the duration of the sessions should be longer, but it is also important to keep in mind that the government should have enough business for this. Even if the duration is less, the House can be run for a long time.
