The Opposition parties in Punjab Sunday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party government for convening a one-day special session of the Assembly, saying that Bhagwant Mann dispensation was “acting like an event management company” instead of focusing on development works and “systematically destroying the constitutional and democratic significance”of the Vidhan Sabha
The Punjab government has called a one-day special session of the Assembly on December 30 to pass a resoltion against the Centre’s Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, which replaces the 20-year-old MGNREGA.
In a statement, Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira said the AAP government has been by replacing full fledged Budget, Monsoon and Winter Sessions with “meaningless one-day sittings”.
“The Vidhan Sabha, which is meant to be the highest forum for debate, accountability and legislative scrutiny, has been deliberately reduced to a ceremonial rubber stamp by drastically curtailing the number of annual sittings. These token sessions leave absolutely no scope for serious discussion, legislative oversight or holding the government accountable,” Khaira said.
The Congress leader said that elected representatives have been denied their fundamental democratic right to raise constituency specific issues as these short sessions do not even provide for a Question Hour. “When there is no Question Hour, there is no accountability. This is a calculated attempt to silence people’s representatives,” Khaira said.
BJP state president Sunil Jakhar termed the special session as yet another “propaganda exercise” by the failed Mann government. It would be better if the government used a special session to discuss the “deteriorating” law-and-order situation and to “deliberate on the frequent murders and extortion threats being reported almost daily”, Jakhar said.
He claimed that during a Union Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s recent visit to Punjab, people from every district highlighted “corruption” in the MGNREGA scheme.
Implementing the MGNREGA scheme was entirely the responsibility of the state government, Jakhar said, adding if the Mann dispensation believed that it did not require any amendments and was ideal in its present form, then why did it fail to provide 100 days of employment to Punjab’s poor over the last four years?
He pointed out that during the current fiscal, the poor in Punjab have been provided only 26 days of employment on average, whereas in the previous years, it managed just 38 days of employment on average. This “exposes” the anti-poor face of the AAP government, Jakhar said, asking why the AAP government was troubled when the Centre is promising to stop “corruption” in the MGNREGA scheme and provide 125 days of work instead of 100.
Referring to earlier special sessions of the Assembly, Jakhar asked CM Mann what happened to the draft law against sacrilege that was sent to a select committee. He also asked about the outcome of the special session convened after a charge that crores of rupees were being offered to AAP MLAs for defection was levelled, and the investigation was handed over to the Punjab Police.
Similarly, the government has been silent on the status of Punjab’s agricultural policy and the chief minister’s assurances to farmer unions that it would be implemented soon, the state BJP chief said.
Jakhar said the government has convened several special sessions of the Assembly, but apart from presenting them as events, the government should make it public what benefits, if any, these sessions have brought to the common people. “To escape accountability for this failure, the government is repeatedly calling special sessions, which will bring no benefit other than placing an additional financial burden on the people of Punjab,” Jakhar added.
Meanwhile, Khaira too claimed that these “short and poorly conducted sessions” have produced no tangible outcomes. “Even the few resolutions passed by the Assembly remain unimplemented, gathering dust in the Raj Bhawan as the Governor refuses to grant assent exposing the complete breakdown of governance and coordination,” he said.
The Congress leader said that the Vidhan Sabha has been converted into a “theatre of mockery, where the Chief Minister indulges in making fun of opposition leaders and cracking low level jokes instead of engaging in serious, issue based debates that Punjab desperately needs”.
He accused the government of stifling opposition voices with the active complicity of a partisan Speaker, who routinely gags opposition MLAs and disallows legitimate interventions.
Khaira warned that the systematic erosion of legislative traditions poses a grave threat to democracy in Punjab. He demanded immediate restoration of full length Budget, Monsoon and Winter Sessions, adequate number of sittings, an unhindered Question Hour, and fair treatment of opposition MLAs.