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Woes of upper house; legislators, officers, ministers, all play truant | | | Syed Junaid Hashmi Jammu, Mar 6: Despite state government expressly defending its continuation, legislative council has seemingly lots relevance not only for officers of state government but also for legislators who are members of this house of elders. If legislative business of the present budget session is any indication, neither officers nor legislators have been taking the upper house seriously. Barring question hour, Officers gallery of legislative council remains empty for most of the time. Visitor's gallery too suffers the same fate. The gallery for ex-legislators and other parliamentarians remain vacant throughout the day. Such is the non-seriousness that as soon as house met for the business, Congress legislator Naresh Gupta today agitated in the legislative council asking the Chairman Amrit Malhotra to direct the state government for taking MLCs on board while framing programmes and schemes under NABARD and BRGF. Gupta said "Our concern is that rural development department has not taken us on board while framing programmes under centrally sponsored schemes." He said "Developmental works under NABARD and BRGF are being given on the advice of MLAs by rural development department. MLCs are being ignored. This is very unfortunate." Gupta was supported by almost all the MLCs. They agitated for a while and soon the entire house was standing in protest. Chairman Amrit Malhotra immediately adjourned the house for 6 minutes (from 11.03 am to 11.09 am). In the meanwhile, Chairman directed Minister for Rural Development Ali Mohammed Sagar to take MLCs onboard. On behalf of Sagar, Minister for State (MOS) Dr. Manohar Lal made a statement in the house that government was committed to involve MLCs in all the developmental programmes. This pacified the agitated MLCs. Thereafter, business of the house ran smoothly. However, when the debate over Governor's address began, both the legislators and the officers began leaving the house. At around 1.18 pm, with Congress MLC Basheer Ahmed Magray on chair, house wore a deserted look. Chair took note of the scheme of things and said that there was no fun in continuing with business of the house when there was no one to listen to what the legislators were saying. He said that treasury benches are vacant while the officer's gallery doesn't even have junior officers. Magray adjourned the house at 1.08 pm. The house was reconvened at around 1.18 pm. Minister for Industries Surjeet Singh Salathia alongwith Minister of State for Cooperative Dr. Manohar Lal alongwith Minister of State for Roads and Buildings Javed Dar entered the house. House ran for more than 30 minutes without proper quorum. At around 1.32 pm, Secretary Legislative Council Mohammed Asharaf informed the Chairman that house was running without quorum. However, the house continued with members coming and going out. Those who remained in the house till the adjournment included Ravinder Sharma, Surjeet Singh Salathia, Javed Dar, Dr. Manohar Lal, Choudhary Hussain Ahmed, Khalid Suhrawardy, Murtaza Khan, Javed Rana and Bashir Magray. Thereafter, while Magray was speaking over Governor's address, Khan interrupted him and while referring to lack of quorum adjourned the house at around 2.05 pm. |
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