Himachal assembly’s monsoon session begins on August 27

Notably, the Opposition, having skipped the all-party meeting convened by speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Monday has already indicated that the session may be headed towards a stormy start

With the assembly’s monsoon session set to commence on Tuesday, a fierce face-off is expected between the ruling Congress and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

Police officers reviewing security outside the Himachal assembly in Shimla. (Deepak Sansta/HT)

Notably, the Opposition, having skipped the all-party meeting convened by speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Monday has already indicated that the session may be headed towards a stormy start.

The session, the first since the Congress won the six bypolls to cement its position, will consist of 10 sittings and is scheduled to conclude on September 9.

The ruling party had faced a major setback during the budget session in February when six of the party legislators cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidate in Rajya Sabha polls leading to bypolls. It, however, managed to reach the 40-MLA mark in the 68 member strong assembly by winning the bypolls.

Parliamentary affairs minister Harshvardhan Chauhan criticised the Opposition for not attending Monday’s meeting, saying it breaks from democratic tradition.

Meanwhile, the monsoon session, the focus will also be on the recent flash floods and the damages caused by them in the state. A discussion has been sought by five MLAs including the Leader of Opposition, Jai Ram Thakur. This year so far, over 250 people have lost lives during the monsoon season in Himachal Pradesh.

Kuldeep Singh Pathania, said the members can raise issues of state interest and their constituencies in the house and can discuss them immediately and the government is also ready to answer them.”In this session information about a total of 936 questions have been received from the members, in which 640 questions are starred (516 on-line, 124 offline) and 296 questions are unstarred (248 on-line and 48 offline) which, as per rules, have been sent to the government for further action,” he said.

The questions are mainly about Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi, flood, merger of schools, situation arising out of recent heavy rainfall and natural calamity in the state, efforts made by the government to deal with the disaster, construction of roads, bridges and many more.