- Flood damages, PSA on MLA, Statehood, reservations to dominate
- Various other items to be taken up for discussion
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Sept 22: The UT Cabinet will meet in Srinagar tomorrow morning to take call on the Assembly session before the expiry of six-month deadline on October 28 amid reports that it will be a brief session with 5-7 sittings with domination of issues like flood damages, detention of AAP MLA from Doda Mehraj Malik under PSA, restoration of Statehood and increasing share of general category in the Government jobs and educational institutions by reducing quota.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
Besides convening Legislature, the Cabinet meeting to be chaired by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will also take up various other issues submitted by different departments.
“The Cabinet is scheduled to meet at 10 AM at Civil Secretariat,’ official sources told the Excelsior.
Few days back, as exclusively reported by the Excelsior, the Assembly Secretariat had written to the Law Department on expiry of six-month deadline for convening Legislature session before October 28 and one-month time required to give notice to the legislators to submit questions, private member’s bills and private member’s resolutions which comes out at September 28.
“The Cabinet will take festival season into account before deciding timing of the Legislature’s session which must meet before October 28,’’ the sources said. Last meeting of the Legislature was held in Jammu on April 28 in the form of one-day special session on Pahalgam terror attack and as per the provisions; the Assembly must meet in six months.
The indications are that the Assembly session is likely to be called by the Government after October 20 and 23 when Diwali and Bhaiya Dooj festivals fall.
As per the provisions, the Cabinet has to recommend date on which the Assembly session will be convened and its duration depending upon business before the House, to the Lieutenant Governor. The LG then issues order convening the Legislature. The Assembly Speaker has to come up with calendar listing business and total sittings.
There are indications that the Legislature session will be a brief one with 5-7 sittings.
Budget session of the Legislature was held from March 3 to April 9 with break of few days in view of Eid festival. The Government then convened one-day special session of the Assembly on April 28 on Pahalgam terror attack which took place on April 22 in which 26 civilians including 25 tourists and a local were killed.
Sources said the Opposition is eagerly waiting for the Assembly session to rake up various issues. In fact, some of the Opposition parties had even demanded convening of special session of the Legislature.
Issues of damages caused in floods, landslides and rains in the Jammu region, detention of AAP MLA from Doda Mehraj Malik under Public Safety Act (PSA), restoration of Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and increasing share of general category in Government jobs and educational institutions by reducing reservation in some other categories, are expected to figure in the Legislature, among others.
In this session, however, some bills could be introduced as only one bill was tabled and passed during the budget session. A day each will be reserved for private member’s bills and private member’s resolutions. During budget session of the Legislature, last three days reserved for private member’s bills and resolutions were lost in the din caused by protests of MLAs from different parties including ruling National Conference over Waqf bill passed by the Parliament.
“Number of questions to be called from the MLAs in the session will be five each starred and un-starred. In budget session, 10 each starred and un-starred questioned are called from the legislators,” the sources said. The starred questions are debated during Question Hour while only written reply is given for un-starred questions.
“Besides the Assembly session, the Cabinet is also expected to take up grant of House Rent Allowance (HRA) and pace of relief and restoration work on flood damages,’’ the sources said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
