Ending almost a fortnight of uncertainty and a war of words between governor Banwarilal Purohit and chief minister Bhagwant Mann, the Punjab assembly session will be held on Tuesday.
The Aam Aadmi Party government has called the session to discuss the state’s power situation, stubble burning, and GST issues. Earlier, a special session announced by the Mann government to seek a confidence motion over alleged “Operation Lotus” by the Bharatiya Janata Party was called off after the governor withdrew his assent. Purohit had cited various legal provisions for the decision. An angry AAP, led by chief minister Mann, had reacted sharply to it. However, it later relented and informed the governor that the session was aimed at discussing issues of public importance.
But a day ahead of the session, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa wrote to Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, seeking discussion of issues like the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) dispute with Haryana, action taken in the sacrilege and related police firing cases, law and order situation, guarantee of the payment of Rs 1,000 to each woman in the state, etc.
Bajwa said as the state government proposes to take up legislative/government business which, inter alia, includes burning issues of GST, stubble burning, power scenario, business on different issues as per notices received from the members needs to be taken up during the session as per the relevant provisions and Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Punjab assembly.
“I am forwarding urgent public importance meriting deliberations on the floor of the House for your perusal, which should be included for consultation and decision in the Business Advisory Committee to make full use of this opportunity for the benefit of the people of Punjab,” said Bajwa.
He further said that apart from the abovementioned issues, a threat to national security due to the failure of the state government over illegal mining, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) slapping a Rs 2,180 crore fine on the state, unabated stress-related deaths of farmers, minimum support price (MSP) on moong, are other key matters.
It remains to be seen if, during the assembly session, the issue of Operation Lotus to destabilise the state government as alleged by AAP would surface.
And to add more drama to expected political developments will be BJP holding what it calls a parallel session of people with the Punjab government’s special session at a public place in sector-37 of Chandigarh.
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