Leader of Opposition in Punjab assembly Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday made an appeal to Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to prorogue the House.
Proroguing the House means discontinuing a session of the legislative assembly without dissolving it.
In a letter to the speaker, Bajwa brought to his notice that Vidhan Sabha sessions were being called at very short notice, thereby bulldozing the right of the members to ask questions on the floor of the House about problems faced by the electorate because the questions given by them were not listed for want of 15 days’ clear notice under Rule 34 of the Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business in the Punjab legislative assembly.
The Congress leader also cited Rule 7 which provides that “on prorogation of the House, all pending notices, other than notices of intention to move for leave to introduce a Bill, will lapse”.
He said that under the second proviso to Rule 7, it has been provided that a fresh notice will be necessary of intention to move for leave to introduce any Bill in respect of which sanction or recommendation has been granted under the Constitution if the sanction or recommendation, as the case may be, has ceased to be operative.
“The net result is that the members are kept waiting for prorogation and cannot give any questions or other notices for redressal of the issues,” he said in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}“The net result is that the members are kept waiting for prorogation and cannot give any questions or other notices for redressal of the issues,” he said in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}Bajwa further brought to his notice that the last sitting of the Vidhan Sabha was held on October 3 and in the normal course, the House should have been prorogued maximum within two weeks. “However, despite the lapse of nearly two months, the prorogation has not been ordered. Consequently, the members cannot give questions for redressal of the concerns of their constituencies because of the fear of their automatic lapse on prorogation after their submission of questions,” he said.