Akali Dal asks speaker to extend special Punjab assembly session to 10 days

Extend the duration of the session so as to discuss key issues and take stock of the “unfulfilled promises” of the ruling Congress, say Akali Dal leaders

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday asked Punjab Vidhan Sabha speaker Rana KP Singh to extend the duration of the special assembly session to 10 days so as to discuss key issues and take stock of the “unfulfilled promises”.

Shiromani Akali Dal leaders outside the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Monday.

In a memorandum to the speaker, SAD legislature party leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon said, “This would be the last session of the current house. Punjabis expect the ruling Congress to give an account of the work done and explain why promises made to farmers, underprivileged sections of the society and the youth had not been fulfilled.”

Farmers, Dhillon said, were not given complete loan waiver of ₹90,000 crore. “The youth neither received employment nor were they given unemployment allowance of ₹2,500 per month even as social benefits, including old age pension and shagun scheme, were not increased as promised,” he said while talking to mediapersons after meeting the speaker.

Dhillon said it was shocking that the government did not spare time to discuss burning issues of the state, including its inability to provide compensation at the rate of ₹50,000 per acre for cotton crop destroyed in the pink bollworm attack.

“The Akali Dal wants to discuss the severe shortage of DAP fertiliser and the loss to cotton growers. We also want to take up the government’s failure to provide scholarship to scheduled caste students and inaction against corrupt ministers and MLAs,” he added.