JAIPUR: The Budget session of the Rajasthan Assembly began on Wednesday with Governor Kalraj Mishra highlighting the state government's achievements in his address in the House and the opposition BJP demanding a CBI probe into the REET paper leak scandal.
Despite the governor asking them to sit down, the BJP members, who wore black bands on their arms, kept standing in their places as a mark of protest. Three Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) MLAs also entered the well of the House over the REET paper leak issue and staged a walkout.
However, there was no disruption and the governor completed his address in nearly an hour. Mishra lauded the state government for its management of the COVID-19 pandemic and said it had emerged as a "role model".
During the pandemic, 33 lakh poor families were given financial assistance of Rs 5,500 each with total spending of Rs 1,815 crore, he said. He added that the state also developed the capacity to conduct 1.45 lakh RT-PCR tests and the health infrastructure was strengthened.
The governor said the state government waived farmers' loans worth Rs 8,181 crore from cooperative banks. Apart from this, the government settled an outstanding payment of Rs 6,000 crore of the previous government.
With this, the government has waived farmers' loans worth more than Rs 14,000 crore in all. On the state government's 'I Am Shakti Yojana' to distribute free sanitary napkins to girls, Mishra said it is the beginning of a change.
Earlier, there was hesitation in society in talking about menstruation and menstrual hygiene, which resulted in women contracting serious diseases. Now, with this scheme, women will get rid of such problems, he said.
Due to the compulsory registration of FIRs in the state, Mishra said, women and the weaker sections have been encouraged to come forward to register police complaints.
In 2017, nearly 33.4 per cent of rape cases were registered through courts. This has now come down to 16 per cent, he said. Similarly, the average time for the investigation of rape cases has come down from 274 in 2017-18 to 79 days now, he added.
The governor highlighted various other government schemes and programmes like 'Mukhya Mantri Chiranjeevi Swasthya Bima Yojana' and transgender welfare fund, etc.
The House reassembled after Mishra left. Newly elected Congress MLAs Preeti Shaktawat (Vallabhnagar) and Nagraj Meena (Dhariawad) took oath. They won bye-elections in November last year.
Later, Speaker CP Joshi made obituary references and the House paid tributes to legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar; country's first Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat; former Rajya Sabha MP Jamna Devi; former Lok Sabha MPs Gangaram Koli, Shyam Sundar Somani, Brijraj Singh and DN Patodiya; former MLAs Jainarayan Poonia, Mahipal Maderna, Mohan Lal Chauhan, Kamal Ram Koli, Jeetmal Jain, Ramkaran Chaudhary, Heeralal Khant, Goverdhan Singh and Surajmal.
The House also paid tributes to those killed in a road accident at the Jodhpur-Balotra road on November 11 last year and in the Guwahati-Bikaner train accident on January 13 this year. After the obituary references, the House was adjourned for the day.