Short sessions the norm now, 14 Bills in 8 days quite satisfactory: Speaker

LUCKNOW: With the Assembly declared adjourned sine die on Friday after just four days of legislative work in the monsoon session, the record of BJP government is no better than previous SP and BSP regimes as far as running of the house is concerned. The session had started on August 23 and after that there was recess till August 26. Thereafter, supplementary budget was tabled and passed within three days.

In the current year, before this brief monsoon session, the Assembly functioned only for 15 days till last budget session and now another eight days. After the formation of the BJP government in March 2017, the house worked for just 24 days. “While house has run on very few days in the present regime, the Opposition, too, has not contributed positively to utilise the limited days in best possible manner,”says an observer.

The trend was almost the same during two previous regimes. In the five years of Akhilesh Yadav’s government, assembly legislated for 24 days in 2016, 27 days in 2015, 24 in 2014, 30 days in 2013 and 28 in 2012 when it was formed. Similarly, in the Mayawati government between 2007-2012, house worked for 28 days in 2012, just 14 in 2011, 20 in 2010 and 13 in 2009, 22 in 2008 and 32 in 2007, the year when Mayawati sworn in third fourth time as chief minister of the state.Though there is no binding that the House should function at least for 100 days a year, but it has been tradition in the past.

The main agenda of BJP government in the current session was to get the supplementary budget approved so that it was able to spend more on its plans, programmes and projects for the development of the state.

When TOI asked Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit, he said that the current session was qualitatively far better as it not only passed 14 important bills, but also deliberated and legislated on them at length. “Passage of 14 bills in eight days is an indication of the more than satisfactory functioning of the House and calling it small is not justified,” he said, adding that he had received 379 notices and out of them more than 50% were entertained.

However, reacting sharply to chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s veiled attack on Samajwadi Party, the Opposition staged sit-in and boycotted his reply on the budget. Later, leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary demanded that his remarks should be expunged. On this,the Speaker reserved his judgment and defused the mounting confrontation.