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Announce budget session date a month in advance: Congress to Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker
Leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and two senior Congress MLAs on Monday met Punjab Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan for the announcement of the date of the coming budget session by the state government at least a month in advance on the pattern of Parliament.
Chandigarh
Leader of opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa and two senior Congress MLAs on Monday met Punjab Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan for the announcement of the date of the coming budget session by the state government at least a month in advance on the pattern of Parliament.
The Congress leaders, who also included Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria and Sukhpal Singh Khaira, said this will give the members enough time to make necessary preparations for constructive participation in discussions during the session.
The speaker was requested to allow discussion on the various reports of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Committees and departmental administrative reports to strengthen the democratic functioning in the state, according to a statement issued by the LoP after the meeting.
Another request was that various burning issues of public interest before the state must be deliberated at length, for which sufficient sittings of the assembly must be held.
Bajwa also urged the speaker to take his notice of the breach of privilege, which is pending before the committee on privileges, to its logical end which would help in making the executive accountable to the legislature. The LoP later sent a letter to the speaker in confirmation of discussions held by the Congress leaders with him.
Ban non-Punjabis from buying agri land in state: Khaira
Khaira, who heads the All-India Kisan Congress, also sought to introduce a private member’s bill in the next assembly session to ban purchase of agricultural land by non-Punjabis in order to protect the identity and demographic balance.
In a letter submitted by him and Bajwa to Sandhwan, Khaira wrote that there has been massive population migration of Punjabis to different parts of the world in search of better livelihood during the last few decades and as per rough estimates, approximately one-sixth of Punjab’s total population of 2.75 crore that is to say almost 50 lakh people have migrated abroad.
“Apart from the negative financial impact on Punjab, due to the shift of population at such large scale, the demographic situation has also started to change drastically. The identity of Punjabis is under a severe threat as lakhs of non-Punjabis have started to reside permanently in our state,” he said. The Congress leader said that this trend if not nipped in the bud immediately, Punjabis particularly the Sikhs will be in a minority in their own motherland in the next 20-25 years.
Because of this reason states like Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan passed laws in their respective states to bar outsiders from buying agriculture land, he wrote, specifically citing Section 118 of the Himachal Pradesh Tenancy Act, 1972, to press his case for a similar law in Punjab.
