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Will UP House adopt parliament like committee system?
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s suggestion of state assembly following the committee system of parliament to make its proceedings more productive has been dubbed
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s suggestion of state assembly following the committee system of parliament to make its proceedings more productive has been dubbed impractical, if not impossible, by the major opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh.
“Unlike the state assembly where legislations and proposals are directly placed before the house, in parliament, the legislations are first discussed threadbare by a panel comprising majority members from ruling party and opposition members before they are placed in the house for discussion and clearance. Departmental budgets are also discussed by committees before being passed in parliament,” said former Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari.
“While the committees discuss departmental budgets in presence of officers, it is for the ruling party, which has majority members in the committee, to accept or reject the suggestions made therein,” said Tiwari, who has been a nine-time MLA.
He claimed he had moved such a proposal during his tenure as UP MLA years ago.
While whether UP assembly will adopt the new system, as suggested by the CM in the house on Friday, is a million dollar question doing round in the corridors of power, opposition members are in no mood to support the move.
“Yogi government does not want to run the assembly and had in fact cut short the budget session. The CM seems to have made the suggestion to keep the members in good humour. His suggestion does not have any meaning as he had earlier promised to ensure 90 sittings of the house in a year,” said leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary, while wondering what steps Yogi took to ensure 90 sittings of the house.
“Yogi’s suggestion is not practical in the state’s perspective. No state assembly has implemented this parliamentary system of committees,” said Chaudhary.
Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhna Mishra too feel that the suggestion has no meaning.
“The situation in the state assembly is different from that in parliament where the quantum of business is much more. We do not need the parliament type committee system in the state. If the government holds more sittings of the house all the members will be able to speak on the budget,” said Mishra.
Winding up his address in the house on Friday, Yogi said “How can we make the proceedings of state assembly more fruitful on the pattern of parliament? If needed, the rules can be amended to bring the house to order….How do we want to do it? I will make a request to set up a committee at the meeting of leaders of all the political parties.. We should make an effort and if needed rules should be amended to run the house on the pattern of parliament….If debate has to be held on 16 ministries, in parliament four are debated in Lok Sabha and four in Rajya Sabha. Budget of other departments is debated in the committee and the house adopts some solid suggestions made therein. The meetings of committees are fruitful and I feel the state assembly should also move towards this tradition.”
Speaker Hridaya Narayan Dikshit said he would comment on the issue only when a proposal in this regard was made after studying the proceedings of the house.
“We have 16 committees to deal with different issues and these committees of state assembly have been made effective,” said Dikshit. A senior officer said a proposal on the issue will be made once proceedings of the house were approved.
