Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 28: For fourth year in a row, there would be no third session of the Legislature this year in the State as the Government has decided to go ahead with the practice of holding only two sessions in a year i.e. completing the Constitutional formality which states that the Legislature must meet once in six months.
“There would be no third session this year like previous three years as the Government has decided to follow the practice of holding only two sessions in a year. Now, the next session of the Legislature would be held in February-March, 2013 in Jammu, the winter capital of the State’’, official sources told the Excelsior.
The Government has conveyed to the Secretariats of both Legislative Assembly and Council that there would be no third session of the Legislature, which would now meet in the February end next year for the budget session.
The idea for holding three sessions of the Legislature in a year, instead of present two, had been mooted by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah himself. Omar had favoured three sessions of the Legislature to make the Government more accountable to the legislators and the people.
Legislative Assembly Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone and Council Chairman Amrit Malhotra have also favoured holding of three sessions in a year. However, according to sources, a section of Ministers and bureaucrats might be scuttling the proposal of convening three sessions of the Legislature in a year as both were grilled by the legislators in the two Houses.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee had proposed that both Parliament and State Legislatures should meet for 100 days in a year. Though the reports of the Parliamentary Standing Committees are not binding, they set a precedent. In majority of the States, the Legislatures hold three or even four sessions. The Parliament also holds three or even four sessions in a year.
However, in Jammu and Kashmir, the Legislature holds about 25 sittings in the budget session in Jammu during February-March and seven to eight sitting in autumn session in September-October in Srinagar. In any case, the sittings of the Legislature in a year are below 35 i.e. nearly one-third of the 100 sittings proposed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
When approached for comments, Legislative Assembly Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone confirmed that the Chief Minister had been advocating for three sessions of the Legislature in a year. However, he admitted that the proposal has not matured so far.
Mr Lone said his personal opinion was that the Legislature should meet as much as possible as it made the entire Government accountable to the legislators and through them to the people, leading to highlighting of the issues faced by the common man. But he made it clear that it was absolutely the prerogative of the Government on whether to hold two or three sessions of the Legislature in a year.
“It depends upon the Government on whether to hold two or three sessions. We just have to prepare for holding the sessions after getting the notice’’, Mr Lone added.
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