UP assembly had one of shortest budget sessions

The state assembly, which was adjourned sine die on Monday after giving nod to the annual budget for 2019-2020, recorded one of the shortest budget sessions in its history -- only 10 sittings of the house.

Though a provision for five-day general discussion and up to 24 day discussion for consideration and voting on demands for grants has been made in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of the UP Legislative Assembly, 1958, there are more examples of this rule being flouted than followed in recent years.

“The rules provide for a five-day general debate and up to 24 day discussion on the departmental budgets. This government is not following the assembly rules. After assuming office in 2017, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had assured members to hold more sittings of the house, but the government is subverting the democratic procedure of debating the budget or other important issues before getting the state legislature’s nod,” said leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary.

The rules also provide for ‘ordinarily’ having 90 sittings and three sessions of the house - the Budget session, the Monsoon session and the Winter session. The rules furtherprovide for holding a session ‘as far as possible’ for at least 10 working days at the interval of two months.

Chaudhary’s assertions are not unfounded. In recent years the successive governments have not cared about debating the budget for specified period of time or holding longer sessions for discussions on important issues. A close scrutiny of the state assembly’s record indicates that the successive governments have failed to follow rules for debate or holding 90 sittings of the house.

Uttar Pradesh assembly had 43 sittings in 1988 and the then chief minister late Vir Bahadur Singh had presented the state budget for 1988-1989 on February 26, 1988. In 1989 too the assembly had 40 sittings with Singh presenting the last budget of a Congress government for 1989-1990 on February 14, 1989. These included 34-day and 35-day long budget session in 1988 and 1989 respectively.

Much has changed since then. The Yogi Adityanath government had held 16-day budget session in 2017 and the house had 23 sittings in the first year of its installation. The duration of budget session, however, came down to 15 days though the house had 25 sittings in 2018.

In 2011 when BSP chief Mayawati was in power, the state assembly had only 8-day budget session. The duration of budget session was 9 and 10 days respectively in 2009 and 2010. When Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav came to power, the first budget session witnessed 17 sittings with a 17-day budget session. In 2013, the budget session’s length was 22 days and the house had 30 sittings. The SP government too had a short budget session of 13 days in 2014.

Minister for parliamentary affairs Suresh Khanna was not available for comments. In the assembly, Khanna, however, had countered the opposition’s charges saying it was not serious about raising issues. The opposition remained more interested in creating unruly scenes than holding meaningful discussions in the house, he had said adding, the house held only 100 sittings during the BSP government’s tenure.

Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Lallu, however, countered the charge saying the BJP too had disrupted proceedings of house when in Opposition. The BJP forced adjournments by disrupting proceedings at two sessions of Lok Sabha during UPA government’s tenure. “Such accusations are simply dual-speak of the BJP,” he said.

Speaker Hridaya Narain Dixit said the house could have more sittings if no hindrances had been caused in the proceedings. "But the quality of debate was better," said Dixit.

First Published: Feb 21, 2019 13:41 IST