BAC meet decides to give enough time, end session on April 9
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 15: The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) met today under the chairmanship of Legislative Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather and discussed threadbare provisional calendar for ongoing budget session.
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Earlier, all BJP members were on their feet after Question Hour with Leader of Opposition (LOP) Sunil Sharma saying the grants of 4-5 departments have been clubbed and only two hours time is being given for discussion which, he claimed, is happening for the first time.
“How the grants of Public Works, Industries and Commerce, Mining etc can be debated in just two hours. This is happening for the first time in the House. Why the Government wants to rush through the business?” Sharma asked.
Addressing the Speaker, the BJP leader said you have already stated that discussion can’t be held on Home and Law and Order. “What whichever departments can be discussed, there is no time for the MLAs to raise the issues. At least 2-3 days should be reserved for discussion on grants of one Minister,” he said and demanded that there should be two sittings of the House everyday to give sufficient time to the members to raise their issues.
Responding to issue raised by the LOP, Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather said the record of last 50 years showed that grants of one Minister were debated only in a day while this time we have reserved three days for the grants of the Chief Minister. The grants of Education and Health Ministries were debated for two days.
“We (the Business Advisory Committee) are meeting today after the session and you can give your suggestions on how better the House can be run. But we must bear in the mind that the budget has to be passed in the month of March. If this is not done, the Government can’t run,” Rather said, adding this time more time has been earmarked for the grants than previous sessions.
Sunil Sharma, however, countered saying now Jammu and Kashmir has only six Ministers while earlier there used to be 25 Ministers. He pointed out that even the ruling party MLAs are complaining about shortage of time. He said meeting of the BAC should have been held earlier.
The BJP leader, however, stated that by the time the BAC meeting will be held, grants of the Deputy Chief Minister would be over. Earlier, the House used to sit up to 9 PM, he said.
Meanwhile, the BAC meeting held in the evening is reported to have decided that three days time for debate on the CM’s grants was sufficient while grants of remaining Ministers including Satish Sharma, Javaid Dar and Javed Rana will be debated with enough time but only in a day as listed earlier.
The BAC is reported to have decided that the Assembly session will be adjourned on April 9 instead of April 11. While April 10 is a holiday, the Government business, if any, has been listed for April 11. It was decided that the Government business, if any, will be adjusted on another day and the House is likely to adjourn now on April 9.
It may be mentioned that after the budget is passed on March 25, the Assembly will have a break and meet again on April 7 when private member’s bills and resolutions will be taken up besides the Government business, if any.
The legislators, including, Sunil Kumar Sharma (Leader of Opposition) Ali Mohammad Sagar, Mubark Gul, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, Gulam Ahmad, Mir Mohammad Fayaz and Choudhary Mohammad Akram attended the meeting and gave their valuable suggestions for making the current Assembly budget session more fruitful and result oriented in largest interest of the general public.
Secretary, Legislative Assembly, Manoj Kumar Pandit and other senior officers of Assembly Secretariat also attended the meeting.
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