CHANDIGARH: On the first day of the new Haryana assembly, two-time MLA Gian Chand Gupta was
unanimously elected the speaker of the House.
Gupta’s name was proposed by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and seconded by Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala.
The legislator from Panchkula, Gupta was the chief whip of the BJP in the last assembly. In the recently-concluded elections, Gupta had retained his seat by defeating Congress candidate Chander Mohan by 5,633 votes.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that to maintain the dignity of the house, the speaker of the assembly should give an equal opportunity to the members of every political party to speak in the house and the members, along with their local demands, should also concentrate in the interest of the state
and legislative work.
Khattar was speaking during the first day of the 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha session, after the house unanimously choose MLA Gian Chand Gupta as the new Speaker of the Haryana Legislative Assembly.
He hoped that the speaker should hold special training programs for the 44 first-time MLAs so that they can understand the proceedings of the House.
Khattar said that Gupta has also served as the Mayor of Chandigarh. He was also the chairman of the Public Accounts and other Committees in the last assembly and has a special interest in handling legislative functions.
He apprised the house that sessions were held thrice in a year during the previous tenure whereas it used to be only two sessions earlier. Prior to 2014 of Haryana Vidhan Sabha, there were about 10 sittings in the year only, which was increased to 17 sittings in 2014 and a total of 15 sessions of the Vidhan Sabha
were convened, which took 84 sittings.
Khattar made the house aware that Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala is the youngest of the 44 elected MLAs. He said that 30 MLAs have come again and 16 legislators have been MLAs and Ministers in the past. He said that Anil Vij and Dr Raghuvir Singh Kadian have become MLAs for the sixth time. This time only nine women have been elected, whereas in the previous assembly the number of women members was 13.