Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 21: Twelfth and last session of 11th Assembly, which is scheduled to begin on August 25, is likely to be very stormy with Opposition bracing up to leave no stone unturned to corner the Government before going to the Assembly elections, which were due to be held, mostly likely in November-December this year.
Though brief with six sittings only from next Monday to Saturday, the Assembly session was set to witness all kind of attacks and counter attacks by the Opposition and the treasury benches with issues like calling off of Indo-Pak dialogue, border firing, corruption, severe financial crunch in the State and refugees taking centre stage. The bickering between the two coalition partners—National Conference and Congress, which has led to cancellation of Co-ordination Committee meeting and no Cabinet meeting since long could also figure in the meeting.
With elections round the corner, it was not only the major Opposition parties like PDP, BJP, NPP and CPM, which have braced up to highlight what they called “non governance’’ in Jammu and Kashmir but even the Congress was planning to highlight the issues of unemployment and pinpoint “deficiencies within the Government’’.
This would be first time in the 11th Assembly when there will be only 83 elected MLAs in the House in addition to two Nominated women. While three MLAs—Mehbooba Mufti and Muzaffar Baig (both from PDP) and Jugal Kishore (BJP) have been elected to Lok Sabha, veteran Congress member and CLP leader Choudhary Aslam has passed away. The Election Commission had decided against filling the vacancies as Assembly elections in the State were due in the next few months.
Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mohammad Sharief Niaz said though the Congress would highlight achievements of the Government it wouldn’t hesitate from pinpointing drawbacks of the Government including unemployment, development and other issues that directly concerned the common man.
“We will not lag behind in raising issues of the people though we are part of the Government,’’ Niaz said.
Admitting that bickering were part of any coalition Government, he said they were results of policy clash between national and regional party and added that this wouldn’t affect the Assembly session.
Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather said the Government would boldly face the Opposition on floor of the House as it has lot of achievements to its credit during last over five and half years.
“We are ready to face any kind of attack from the Opposition—be it the PDP or the BJP, NPP or the CPM. We have done lot of development and initiated other pro-people measures. We are not worried from the Opposition. In a democracy, the Opposition has a right to raise the issues and the treasury benches have right to respond them,’’ Rather said and hoped that last session of 11th Assembly would end on healthy note with the Opposition parties not creating any situation that leads to frequent adjournments and no work in the House.
Rather said he was ready to reply to any queries on Opposition’s charge of financial crunch in the State in the House. “The Government will explain each and everything in the House,’’ he added.
Abdul Rehman Veeri, who is likely to be the Leader of PDP Legislature Party in the Assembly after Mehbooba Mufti’s election to Lok Sabha from Anantnag, said the Government has done nothing for the State except for giving ‘hollow slogans’ and “we will take up this issue vociferously in the Assembly’’.
“Corruption is rampant. Treasuries are empty. People are not getting ration. The end of August is approaching and still District Development Board (DDB) meetings have not been held. The district plan has not been finalized even for the districts where working season is very limited. The Cabinet meetings are not being held due to open bickering in the coalition. All anti-graft bodies have become headless and the Government is not bothered to fill up the vacancies. The State is badly suffering due to complete misgovernance,’’ Veeri said, adding the PDP would rake up all these issues prominently in the Assembly.
BJP Legislature Party leader Ashok Khajuria said the BJP would strongly take up the issues faced by the people of the State.
“This Government has failed on all fronts. Rather, there is no name of the Government. The entire system has collapsed. The coalition partners are fighting with each other. The Ministers are engaged in ‘looting’ the State exchequer. The transfers have become an industry. The discrimination within the regions is on. We will take the Government to task and highlight all these issues in the Assembly apart from constituency related problems,’’ Khajuria said.
NPP Legislature Party leader Harshdev Singh said the NPP has chalked out its strategy to corner the coalition Government, which has nothing to say in its defence.
“There is no name of Government functioning in Jammu and Kashmir. There is no Cabinet meeting, no DDB meeting, no development works, no job opportunities and no finances. Everything has paralyzed. The governance is completely missing. The Government will have to answer our queries,’’ Harshdev said.
CPM member MY Tarigami said the developments works have completely come to standstill as despite the month of August coming to an end, the Government is yet to hold the DDB meetings. Already the working season is very limited in some States and the Government failure to hold the DDB meetings would leave no scope for development in some areas, he added.
Tarigami said he would also raise the “unhealthy slogan’’ given by a Congress Minister for electing the Chief Minister of a particular community. “It is a tradition that the Legislature Party of the largest political party in the Assembly elects its leader, who becomes the Chief Minister,’’ he said.
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