Haryana Assembly session: Opposition to corner govt over jobs, crime

The Haryana Assembly's three-day monsoon session starting here from next Monday is likely to be a stormy affair with the Opposition set to corner the BJP-led government over issues like unemployment, law and order and illegal mining.

From now on, the Assembly will not have two sittings on any given day, which has been the practice so far, and will instead have at least six hours of single sitting each day.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday said Congress MLAs will seek answers from the BJP-JJP coalition government over the Agnipath Scheme, unemployment, law and order, illegal mining, corruption and the drug issue.

The Haryana Congress Legislature Party meeting was held on Tuesday to chalk out the strategy for the session.

Former chief minister Hooda told reporters that the House Business Advisory Committee, which met Tuesday evening, decided that the session will be of three days.

Hooda said he favoured a session stretching up to at least a week so that every MLA gets time to raise issues.

The Congress leader said his party MLAs have given calling attention and adjournment motions to the speaker demanding discussion on various issues.

''We wanted the session to be a lengthy one but it has become a habit of the government to run away from issues. But the Congress will continue to fight on issues of public interest from the House to streets,'' he said.

Hooda said the Congress will hold a protest against inflation on August 5 in all districts of the state.

The Congress has given adjournment motions on deteriorating law and order situation and corruption in various spheres, Hooda said.

The party has also given calling attention motions on unemployment, illegal mining and the drug menace, he added.

On the other hand, Indian National Lok Dal senior leader and party's lone MLA in the Haryana Assembly, Abhay Singh Chautala, on Tuesday said unemployment is rising and the government is in denial mode.

It is not willing to accept that the unemployment rate has crossed the 30 per cent-mark, he added.

Meanwhile, Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, who chaired a meeting of three House committees on Tuesday, told reporters in the evening that the monsoon session beginning August 8 is going to see the beginning of new traditions. The Rules Committee of the Legislative Assembly has accepted the proposal of changing the timing of the session, he said. From now on, Assembly sessions will be held in single sitting and will start at 11 am and continue till at least 6 pm. There will be a midday break of one hour. Gupta said the major change will be that there will be no two sittings on any given day and at least six hours of work will be done each day. This will give more time to the legislators to express their views and more legislative work could be done, he said. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had recently said paperless proceedings will be conducted in the upcoming Assembly session and tablets will be seen in front of the MLAs during the proceedings. Speaker said on the first day of the monsoon session, before the start of the proceedings, a one-and-a-half hour practice session for MLAs will be held to enable them to understand the working of the e-Vidhan Sabha.