Opinion divided over holding winter session

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 27

With the opinion remaining divided, there is uncertainty over the holding of the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha, scheduled to be held at Dharamsala from December 7 to 11. The possibility of the five-day winter session being postponed or being held here in the state capital and not in Dharamsala as is the practice remains open.

An all-party meeting was held in the Vidhan Sabha here today to discuss the issue amid growing concern over spike in coronavirus cases across the state.

The meeting was chaired by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Bhardwaj and attended by Congress Legislature Party Leader Mukesh Agnihotri, CPM MLA Rakesh Singha and Independent MLA Hoshiyar Singh. Vidhan Sabha Speaker Vipin Parmar and Deputy Speaker Hans Raj could not attend the meeting as they are away to Gujarat for an official engagement.

The dates for winter session at Dharamshala from December 7 to 11 have already been notified. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Bhardwaj said both options of postponing or holding the session at Shimla instead of Dharamsala remained open and the matter would be placed before the Cabinet for the final decision. “The CLP Leader has already demanded that the Assembly session should be held and we have issued the notification but a majority of the Congress legislators are against it in view of the Covid surge,” said CM Jai Ram Thakur.

“The government has already notified the dates for the winter session and 400 questions have been filed by MLAs,” said Agnihotri even as several of his own party’s MLAs have demanded that session be postponed. “Vidhan Sabha is the highest form of democracy and to strengthen it, the session must be held,” said CPM MLA Rakesh Singha.

Bhardwaj said since the monsoon session of the Assembly concluded on September 18, there was still six months’ time till March 18, 2021, to hold the session, as per norms.