Punjab session rings hollow without work

CHANDIGARH, March 29: The Budget session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha would be remembered for a few things -- brief five sittings without much...

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CHANDIGARH, March 29: The Budget session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha would be remembered for a few things — brief five sittings without much work, absence of the Chief Minister, non-presentation of the Budget for the coming financial year and absence of debate on the Governor’s address. The session, which was adjourned on Friday, remains incomplete as a result.

Perhaps on the first occasion, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal remained absent during the four-day session since he has gone to the United States for health and official reasons. His continued absence was not only reflected in the performance of treasury benches but the matter was also raised by Ajit Inder Singh Mofar (Akali Dal-Amritsar). Finance Minister Kanwaljit Singh allayed all apprehensions on the CM’s health by stating in the House that he was in good health.

In Badal’s absence, Kanwaljit Singh instead of the officiating CM Balramji Dass Tandon of the BJP, dominated the proceeding.

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The session began with the address of Governor Lt GenB K N Chhibber (retd) in the House wherein he reiterated Punjab’s long-pending demands like transfer of Chandigarh and Punjabi-speaking areas to the state and resolution of river-waters disputes. These demands assume significance now since the ruling alliance of Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party is also in power at the Centre.

However, this address was not taken up for discussion and has been kept in abeyance till the second leg of the Budget Session which may be held in June.The government also deferred presentation of annual budget for 1997-98 as the national budget too has not been presented in Parliament yet. Instead, a vote-on-account covering first three months of the ensuing financial year was presented and passed without debate.

The Opposition was more aggressive during the Session than on previous occasions during first year of the SAD-BJP rule in the State. There were at least half a dozen walk-outs by the combined Opposition or the Congress alone during last two days of the session.The pre-Lok Sabha poll alliance of the Congress, Communist Party of India and the Bahujan Samaj Party, continued in the State Assembly as well.

The Opposition is believed to have assumed aggressive postures since the Opposition leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, who is also the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president, has been under fire from her partymen in the wake of the drubbing the combine received in recent Lok Sabha elections in the state. She went all out criticising the State government perhaps to rebut the criticism that she has been somewhat sympathetic to it.

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Incidentally, BJP’s Lumxi Kanta Chawla, though belonging to Treasury benches, conducted herself more like from the Opposition benches as she hit out at the government policies of which she is a part. She stated that she was a neutral MLA and had decided to support different sides in the House on the basis of issues, rather than on party considerations.