Three-day session of Gujarat Assembly to begin from Dec 9

A three-day session of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly will begin on December 9, during which the state government plans to introduce the Statue of Unity Area Development and Tourism Governance Bill, 2019. The government will also table bills for amendments to several legislations related to higher and technical education, GST, SMEs, land revenue and co-operative societies.

Talking to reporters on Saturday, Minister of State for Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs, Pradeepsinh Jadeja, said there will be four sittings during the session, which will end on December 11. On the first day, the Assembly will pay tributes to former chief minister Dilip Parikh, who died on October 25 this year, Jadeja said.

Parikh was the 13th chief minister of Gujarat, who held the office between October 28, 1997 and March 4, 1998. In the second sitting on Monday, two amendment bills- one related to small and medium scale (SME) industry, and another related to the state electricity duty, will be taken up, he said.

A resolution regarding the Constitution Day, which is celebrated on November 26, will be passed on the same day. It will be presented by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Jadeja said. Five amendment bills- those related to state higher education council, state GST, state land revenue code, state cooperative societies, and state professional technical education college- will be introduced on the second day of the session on December 10, he added.

"On the third and last day of the session, the government will introduce Statue Of Unity Area Development and Tourism Governance Bill, 2019," Jadeja said. The Statue of Unity is the world's tallest monument located near Kevadiya in tribal-dominated Narmada district of Gujarat. The 182-metre-tall statue of Sardar Patel was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31 last year.

Jadeja said the assembly will also pass a resolution on the 150 birth anniversary celebration of Mahatma Gandhi. On being asked if the government was ready to tackle opposition Congress' plans to corner it on various issues, including alleged irregularities in government job exam and crop loans to farmers, Jadeja said they were prepared to face the questions.

"We are committed to take up all questions from the Opposition, and will reply them with full transparency, based on the decisions taken by the chief ministers to tackle these issues...We have a positive approach. And we are well prepared to reply to all the questions," he said. Meanwhile, a Congress leader said that the party MLAs will hold a meeting on Sunday to discuss strategy to corner the government.

The Congress had earlier announced that it would take out a march to the assembly over the issue of alleged irregularities in the recruitment exam held in the state last month. Due to Lok Sabha elections held in April-May this year, the regular Budget session of the state Assembly was held in July instead of February. Since it is mandatory to call the Assembly session within six months, the government decided to hold this three-day-long session..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)