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1st session of new Himachal assembly begins on stormy note
Pandemonium started before the MLAs took oath and the Opposition continued to create uproar even after the swearing-in — unprecedented in the history as the first day of maiden session of the assembly passes off in cordial atmosphere
The first session of 14th Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly began on a stormy note amid sloganeering by members of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who also staged a walkout over the denotification of the institutions opened by the previous government in the last one year of its term.
Pandemonium started before the MLAs took oath and the Opposition continued to create uproar even after the swearing-in — unprecedented in the history as the first day of maiden session of the assembly passes off in cordial atmosphere.
As soon as pro-tem speaker Chander Kumar concluded his opening remark, leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur questioned the decision to close down the offices and institutions opened by the government led by him.
“Never in the history of the state has any government worked with such vendetta,” he claimed, adding that the Congress government was “insulting the public mandate”.
The cabinet had decided to open these institutions and only it is empowered to roll back the decisions, he said.
“But the cabinet has not yet been formed in the state and as per rules, these institutions cannot be denotified,” Jai Ram said.
The leader of Opposition said that the government should issue orders to reopen all denotified institutions and a decision should be made whether any institution should be closed down after a review.
There was a heated exchange between the members of treasury and Opposition benches as well. Kumar tried to de-escalate the situation and advised members to exercise restraint.
He said, “Today is a very propitious occasion as 23 members have entered the House for the first time and the Opposition should cooperate in the swearing-in. There are two more days to raise and discuss these issues.”
He administered the oath to chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, his deputy Mukesh Agnihotri, leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, former deputy speaker Hans Raj and other newly elected MLAs.
Speaking to the media outside, Jai Ram said the Congress government turned the House into a public rally where its supporters clapped from the visitor’s gallery. “Some unknown people even sat in the officers’ gallery. The entry passes were issued to the people in excess,” he added.
On the issue of denotifying institutions, he said it was okay to review them, but the manner in which the government acted was unfortunate. Alleging that the chief minister was doing this under someone’s pressure, he said the government even denotified a police post opened in 1952.
