SRINAGAR: Amid continued din and protests by BJP members over the power tariff hike, outsourcing of government jobs and regularisation of daily wagers and NHM employees, Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather adjourned the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for the day on Monday.
The 10-day session with seven sittings started with obituary references in Srinagar today.
After the passage of obituary references, as soon as the Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather called for the start of Question Hour, all the BJP members in the House stood from their chairs and started protesting amid the chanting of slogans.
The BJP members, carrying placards, were protesting against the recent power hike and outsourcing of government jobs and demanding regularisation of daily wagers and NHM employees, among other issues.
The Speaker urged the protesting BJP members to take their chairs and let the Question Hour go on. The BJP members intensified their protest and sloganeering as the Question Hour continued for some time.
The BJP members marched into the well of the House to force the Speaker to adjourn the Question Hour and start a discussion on the issues being raised by them.
The BJP members waved banners with messages, “Do Justice to NHM Employees”, “Enhance the honorarium of Anganwari and Asha workers, revoke the electricity tariff hike”.
There was some commotion between ruling NC-Congress members and protesting BJP members.
Amid the continued uproar from the BJP members, the Speaker continuously urged the agitating BJP members to go back to their chairs and allow the House proceedings to go on.
The BJP had attacked the NC government for the short duration of the autumn session and had demanded that it should be at least 30 days so that MLAs could raise public issues.
The autumn session is expected to be stormy as the opposition parties, including BJP, would corner the Omar Abdullah government on reneging on its poll promises, including 200 free units of electricity, 1 lakh government jobs, 12 free cylinders, regularisation of daily wagers, the recent power tariff hike, flawed reservation policy, delay in holding panchayat and ULB polls, etc.
According to a BJP leader, the party MLAs would raise the issue of outsourcing of government jobs, corruption in public offices, delay in holding panchayat and urban local bodies' polls, electricity tariff hike and failure to deliver on poll promises in the autumn session.
“Being the principal opposition party, we will seek accountability from the government on the public issues,” Leader of Opposition (LoP) Sunil Sharma said.
He said the party legislators will seek answers from the government for the poll promises made by the party to the people.
The Valley-based parties, including PDP, Peoples Conference and independent MLA Sheikh Khursheed, are likely to forcefully raise the issue of reservation in J&K, outsourcing of jobs and regulation of daily wagers.
As per the present reservation policy in J&K, Open Merit jobs have fallen to 30-40 per cent only despite the general category population being 60%, while the categories have about 60-70% reservation.
The Valley-based parties have been demanding rationalisation of the reservation policy and pressing for at least a 50% cap for Open Merit.
The Omar Abdullah government had formed a Cabinet sub-committee to look into the reservation policy and the committee, some months back, submitted its report, which was forwarded by the Cabinet to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha for approval. The LG had, in turn, forwarded the report to MHA for approval, but the Home Ministry has returned the file with some queries.
Ahead of the Assembly session, the ruling NC convened a meeting of party legislators and independent MLAs supporting the government to formulate the strategy for the autumn session.
The members have submitted about 650 questions and 50 Private Members’ Resolutions. The Private Members’ Bills and resolutions are scheduled for September 24 and 25, respectively.
Today’s business includes obituary references on the demise of Dr. Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, Dharam Paul and Ghulam Hassan Khan, all former ministers.
The Speaker will also announce the Panel of Chairmen for the session.
The NC MLA Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi, Chairman of the House Committee, will lay on the Table of the House a copy of the report of the panel constituted to probe alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Minister In-charge Cooperatives Javid Ahmad Dar, will introduce a Bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Societies Act, 1989, to repeal the Jammu and Kashmir Self-Reliant Cooperative Act, 1999, and to provide a transitional arrangement for self-reliant cooperatives under the 1989 Act.
Tight security arrangements have been put in place in and outside the Assembly.