Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 12: PDP Member from Kargil, Haji Inayat Ali was elected as Chairman while senior Congress Member from Poonch, Jehangir Hussain Mir as Deputy Chairman of the J&K Legislative Council today.
The motion for election of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman was moved by Minister for Education Naeem Akhtar, who is also the Leader of the House. The motion was seconded by MLC, Ramesh Arora.
Both the Members were elected unanimously in presence of 32 Members of the House. The only NC member, Showkat Hussain Ganai was not present.
Immediately, after his election, the new Chairman, accompanied by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Dy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, Leader of the House Naeem Akhtar, MoS Cooperatives Chering Dorjay, Leaders of Opposition Sajjad Kichloo and Jugal Kishore from NC and Congress, respectively, was taken up to the `chair’ of the Chairman atop the Well of the House and felicitated for being elected as Chairman.
Similarly, the Dy Chairman was also offered his seat by the Leader of the House, Naeem Akhtar, R&B Minister Altaf Bukhari, Ajatshtru Singh, G N Monga, Sajjad Kichloo and others.
While felicitating the newly elected Chairman and Deputy Chairman, Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh said that Coalition Government created history by electing Deputy Chairman of Upper House from opposition party which was never witnessed earlier. Similarly, he said, the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly was also elected from the opposition.
“We decided to give the position of the main opposition to the National Conference in the Lower House and to the Congress in the Upper House of the State Assembly maintaining balance, because the coalition between the BJP and the PDP is not to rule the State, but to work for larger goal of bringing the State out of the crisis and ensuring peace and development ,” he said.
Dr Singh said that democracy and democratic institutions would get strengthened in the State by involving the mainstream political parties. He said the endeavour of the BJP-PDP Coalition Government is to ensure due representation to every region and community to build new bonds of inter-regional and inter-community harmony. He said aspirations of every section of the society would be addressed to ensure participatory governance.
The Deputy Chief Minister further said though BJP was in coalition with the PDP, but the difference of opinion will always be there. They will work together as per the common minimum programme for the welfare of the people.
Deputy Chairman, Legislative Council Jehangir Mir also spoke on the occasion and thanked the House for nominating him to the post. During most of his speech, Mr Mir praised Mufti Sayeed for his decisions and described him as great visionary. He said only Mufti Sayeed has the quality to feel the pulse of the people of all the regions and sections.
Minister for Cooperatives and Ladakh Affairs, Tsering Dorjay said that the Chief Minister has done justice to the people of Ladakh region by offering the position of Chairman to Haji Inayat Ali from Kargil. He said it is great honour for the people of Ladakh region who were earlier feeling alienated. By providing representation to this neglected region, the PDP has done justice. He extended gratitude to the PDP and the BJP leadership for this decision. He also congratulated Jehangir Mir for being elected as Dy Chairman.
Ghulam Nabi Monga from Congress, Sajad Ahmad Kichloo from NC, Naresh Kumar Gupta from Congress, Muzaffar Parray from Congress, Zaffar Iqbal Manhas from PDP, Sofi Yousuf from BJP, Dr Bashir Ahmad Veeri from NC, Yasir Reshi from PDP, Dr Shehnaz Ganai from NC and Firdous Ahmad Tak from PDP also spoke on the occasion and felicitated Haji Ali and Mr Mir.
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