Uttarakhand budget session extended for three days
DEHRADUN: The duration of the ongoing budget session of Uttarakhand state Assembly has been extended for three more days from March 24-27.
"The session has been extended given the discussion on the budget is still incomplete. Our government is committed to work for people and strengthen the democratic process," said Madan Kaushik, state cabinet minister and spokesperson of the government.
The decision was taken amid growing voices of protests of the House not functioning for minimum required days.
However, it is still not clear if these three days of the session will be in Gairsain or Dehradun Assembly. Insiders said that most likely the session will be in Dehradun.
Indira Hridayesh, leader of the opposition, commenting on the issue said, "The BJP government does not want a discussion on important issues such as unemployment and corruption hence the short session. We will be raising related questions in the house."
According to 'Legislative Rules and Procedures 2005', Uttarakhand state assembly should function at least for 60 sittings which would generally translate into 60-days. However, the said rule is not binding.
The data accessed by Express from Uttarakhand legislative secretariat revealed that on an average between duration of year 2001-2019 only about 16 sittings were recorded every year.
In year 2001, the assembly had functioned 19 days while in year 2002 the assembly had only 17 sittings followed by 23 sittings in year 23, 7 in year 2004, 21 in year 2005, 15 in 2006, 16 in year 2007, 20 in year 2008, 18 in year 2009, 12 in year 2010, 14 in year 2011, 20 in year 2012, 8 in year 2013, 19 in year 2014, 12 in year 2015, 13 each in year 2016 and 2017, 14 in year 2018 and 17 in year 2019.