Winter session of Bihar legislature begins

Deputy chief minister Tarkishore Prasad tabled the second supplementary to the annual budget for the fiscal 2021-22 and other bills, including those pertaining to the amendments to the goods and services tax and Panchayati Raj Acts for seeking the house’s approval.

The five-day winter session of the state legislature began on Monday on a customary note, with the chairs of both legislative assembly as well as the legislative council leading their respective houses in paying homage to the former members and other prominent personalities who passed away during the intervening period since the monsoon session.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with other ministers raises hands in favour of prohibition on liquor in the state, during the NDA Legislature Party meeting, in Patna on Monday. (PTI)

The proceedings of the state assembly began with recitation of the national anthem after which speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha announced the names of senior leaders Prem Kumar of the BJP, Narendra Narayan Yadav of JD(U), Awadh Bihari Chaudhary of RJD, Jyoti of Congress and Mohammad Ashfaq Alam of the CPI(ML) as presiding officers for the current session. He also reconstituted the business advisory committee for the smooth conduct of the short session.

Deputy chief minister Tarkishore Prasad tabled the second supplementary to the annual budget for the fiscal 2021-22 and other bills, including those pertaining to the amendments to the goods and services tax and Panchayati Raj Acts for seeking the house’s approval.

The assembly later paid its tributes to sitting MLA Musafir Paswan, former MLAs Sadanand Singh, Mithilesh Kumar Singh, Janardan Sharma, Gauri Shankar Nagdansh and Hind Kesri Yadav, former MLCs Balram Singh Yadav, Khalid Rashid Saba, and Ramji Prasad Sharma, who died recently. The members observed silence to pay homage to the departed souls, after which the house was adjourned for the day.

The state legislative council was also adjourned for the day after the customary obituary references of the departed leaders. Working chairman of the upper house, Awadhesh Narayan Singh, hoped that the members of the house would utilise the short session to address the public issues and as usual abstain from creating chaos on insignificant issues.

Earlier, members of the left parties staged protests over recent hooch deaths and blamed the state government for failure of the prohibition law.

Tejashwi attacks govt for its failure on various fronts

Opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav took a dig at chief minister Nitish Kumar over Niti Aayog’s latest report that had ranked Bihar poorly on various counts and blamed the “apathy” the chief minister for the poor condition of the state.

Talking to media persons outside the assembly after it was adjourned for the day, Yadav said the “double-engine” government was of no use in Bihar. “One of its (Nitish government) engines had become faulty. They (ruling party leaders) say ‘15-saal bemishal’. But actually, it is ‘Badhaal 15 Saal’ for Bihar under Nitish regime. The Niti Aayog report only lends credence to the opposition’s charge that the Nitish government has failed on all fronts,” said the RJD leader.

Yadav alleged the state witnessed 75 financial scams in the last 15 years. “Schemes under the seven commitments of CM, worth ₹24,000 crore, envisaging plantation, remain on papers only. Har ghar nal ka jal scheme is another major scam. Bihar has become no. 1 in poverty, crime and unemployment. Migration remains unabated. People are dying due to consumption of illicit liquor, but police personnel are raiding the wedding functions,” he said.

Yadav said the RJD had decided to extend unconditional support to Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.