UP Assembly secretariat has issued notification for the budget session of the state assembly from February 8. The budget session of the assembly is the inaugural session of the state Legislature which begins with the joint address to both the houses of the State Legislature by the state Governor.
The notification issued by the principal secretary of the assembly Pradeep Dube said Rs Rs the state governor Ram Naik has decided to address both the houses of the State Legislature at Vidhan Bhawan on February 8’’. The tentative agenda of the assembly is likely to be issued by the assembly secretariat on January 29. The state cabinet in its last meeting on January 23 had decided to convene the budget session of the state assembly from February 8.
The budget session is likely to see the opposition and the assembly speaker HN Dikshit at loggerheads as the Speaker has already stated that opposition will face disciplinary action if they carry out “planned obstructions” during the address of Governor Ram Naik in the Assembly. For nearly two decades it has become a rule rather than exception for the opposition to obstruct the joint address by the state Governor. In the first session of the present assembly the opposition Samajwadi party had obstructed the joint address by the Governor. The Governor was not allowed to read the address and opposition members had thrown paper balls at the governor.
Earlier this month the Speaker had said that it was the responsibility of the MLAs to maintain discipline inside the Assembly. Dixit said: “Ummeed hai is saal log Rajyapal ka abhibhashan shanti se sunenge (Hope they will calmly listen to the Governor’s address this year).”
Talking to Rs The Pioneer , the Speaker on the steps to be taken to ensure that the 2017 budget session incident — where paper balls were thrown towards the Governor during his first address to the Assembly — is not repeated, the Speaker said: “The Speaker has many powers under the Constitution. To maintain discipline, he can suspend members for a short time. But there are two things — while there could be sudden aggressiveness over some statement, a solution could be found for the concerning issue and there cannot be any punitive action in such a case.”
“However, bringing banners and posters and blowing whistles… clearly show that such things have been done in a planned manner. So, if anyone takes such steps… and any indiscipline is taking place, we will think about taking action,” he added.
The opposition members apart from throwing paper balls towards the Governor in 2017, the opposition MLAs had also blown whistles and displayed banners to interrupt his address. The Opposition members had held a “parallel assembly” in the central hall of the assembly to protest against the government in July, last year.
The Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary said that SP is a follower of Ram Manohar Lohia and Jai Prakash Narayan, and respects the Constitution and parliamentary traditions. “For five years, when our government was in power, they (BJP MLAs) not only used to barge into the Well of the Assembly all the time but also sat on dharna for two days in the Speaker’s gallery. They forgot the Constitution as well as rules and regulations… They have started teaching the same now that they are in power.” The Samajwadi party leader alleged that Rs Rs the BJP wants to suppress the entire Opposition and we will not allow this to happen,”