Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 23: Though the MLAs, both from ruling coalition and opposition parties have always been in forefront in demanding constitution of House Committees for different purposes in the Legislative Assembly, the reports of majority of them were being delayed to the extent that Legislative Assembly Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone has been forced to openly raise his discontent against the chairpersons and members of the Committees for inordinate delay in submitting their reports.
Official sources told the Excelsior that it was on the intervention of two MLAs that the Speaker had constituted a House Committee headed by National Conference veteran leader and former Minister Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan comprising MLAs of different parties to look into the series of deaths reported from GB Pant Hospital in Srinagar nearly two months back.
The Speaker had constituted the House Committee after a series of reports published in the newspapers and a petition filed before him by two MLAs of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Basharat Bukhari and Peer Mansoor Shah.
“The Committee has not submitted its report so far’’, sources said, adding that the issue of children’s deaths in GB Pant Hospital was such an important case that the panel should have held frequent meetings and submitted the report immediately to the Speaker for initiating action against those responsible for deaths.
Sources pointed out that there had been massive uproar in the entire Kashmir Valley over deaths of the children in GB Pant Hospital. The PDP MLAs had approached the Speaker for setting up the House Committee, which he did immediately.
“The same House Committee hadn’t been able to submit its report to the Speaker so far’’, they said.
Another House Committee headed by National Conference’s three time MLA from Kupwara, Saifullah Mir had been set up during budget session of the Legislature in March this year following uproar in the House over earth filling on wet land and agriculture land in the Valley.
Even after a lapse of nearly four months, the Committee hadn’t submitted its report.
Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone told the Excelsior that he was not satisfied with working of House Committees as they had been delaying the reports making the very purpose of their constitution irrelevant.
“The chairpersons and members of the Committees should regularly meet, hold threadbare discussions and finalise their recommendations so that the officers responsible for the wrong doings were taken to task’’, he said, adding that the Legislature was the major forum on whom the people have high hopes and expectations.
Mr Lone added that there were many other important Committees like Public Accounts Committee, which were not giving good results.
“The Committees should give immediate results and not behave like investigating agencies, which produced challans in the court when the culprits had retired or even died. Of course, there is set procedure for the Committees to work but they shouldn’t take so much of time that the very purpose of their constitution and giving reports was defeated’’, Mr Lone said.
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