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Ahead of Uttar Pradesh budget session, Yogi Adityanath for meaningful debate, speaker seeks cooperation of all leaders
Though the speaker got a positive assurance from leaders of all parties, the opposition is demanding more sittings during the Uttar Pradesh budget session
The Uttar Pradesh legislature’s budget session set will begin here on Monday with governor Anandiben Patel’s address before a joint sitting of the two houses.
There are indications that the main opposition party, the Samajwadi Party, and other major opposition groups would use the occasion of governor’s address and the rest of the budget session to raise issues of public interest in the house while seeking answers from the government.
Addressing an all-party meeting on Sunday, state assembly speaker Satish Mahana urged all the leaders to cooperate for smooth conduct of the house.
Though the speaker got a positive assurance from leaders of all parties, the opposition is demanding more sittings during the Uttar Pradesh budget session.
“All the party leaders have assured positive cooperation in running the house. My endeavour will be to ensure smooth conduct of the house and have more sittings during the budget session,” Mahana said on phone.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath said this would be the first session of the state legislature in 2023 and the house would provide a forum for a meaningful debate on various issues.
Uttar Pradesh was on a path of progress and development, he said, adding that the session would witness a debate on the annual budget for 2023-24.
Parliamentary affairs and finance minister Suresh Khanna said the people re-elected the Yogi Adityanath government because of its good governance and the members should cooperate in the smooth conduct of the house.
Senior Samajwadi Party leader Manoj Kumar Pandey said, “We have asked all our members to ensure 100% attendance. We want more sittings of the house and there should be separate discussion and voting on the budget of the major departments. We will raise the issues of people’s concern in the house. Besides the issue of unemployment, problems of farmers related to fertilisers, poor health services and others, we are going to raise the Kanpur Dehat incident, where a woman and a daughter were burnt alive.” Pandey represented his party at the meeting.
“Major opposition parties want the house to run smoothly. We have requested chief minister for more sittings during the budget session. The number of sittings of the house is coming down. Both chief minister Yogi Adityanath and minister for parliamentary affairs and finance Suresh Khanna have agreed to have a longer budget session. As far as the issues are concerned, we will raise the issue of law and order situation, including the recent Kanpur Dehat incident,” said Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ after the all-party meeting.
The state government has proposed nearly 14 sittings during the assembly’s budget session from February 20 to March 10.
The others who attended the all-party meeting included Apna Dal (S) leader Ramnivas Verma, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Rajpal Baliyan, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party leader Om Prakash Rajbhar, NISHAD party leader Anil Kumar Tripathi, BSP leader Uma Shankar Singh and Jan Satta Dal leader Raghuraj Pratap Singh ‘Raja Bhaiya’.
