By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
DEHRADUN, 9 Dec: On the first day of winter session of the Uttarakhand Assembly, the House paid tribute to Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat who along with his wife and 11 other senior defence officers, had lost his life his life in a chopper crash yesterday in Tamil Nadu. The House condoled the deaths and after offering tributes to Late Bipin Rawat, was adjourned for the day. It may also be recalled that the two day winter session that had been summoned on 9 and 10 December was late last evening extended to a three day session with the first day session today being reserved for tributes to the brave-hearts who had lost their lives yesterday! It may further be recalled that a three day official mourning was announced beginning today by the government in memory of General Bipin Rawat late last night. Also, before entering the house on the first day of the winter session, Assembly Speaker Prem Chand Agarwal, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, BJP State President Madan Kaushik, Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Banshidhar Bhagat, Forest Minister Harak Singh Rawat, Agriculture Minister Subodh Uniyal, Higher Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh along with ruling party and all the MLAs of the opposition paid their tribute by paying floral tributes to the portrait of CDS General Bipin Rawat in the gallery of the House. Later the House began its sitting and rich tributes were paid to Bipin Rawat and others. After, everyone spoke including the Leader of the Opposition, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Speaker Prem Chand Aggarwal himself, a two minutes silence was observed in memory and as tribute to the departed souls and then the House was adjourned for the day. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami after this, left for Delhi to attend the funeral of General Bipin Rawat. The first day of the session was dedicated to offer condolences and tributes on the passing away of CDS General Bipin Rawat. In this sequence, before entering the House on the first day of the winter session today, Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Premchand Agarwal, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and other ministers MLAs offered flowers to the portrait of General Bipin Rawat. A proposal to name the Sanskrit University being built in Deoprayag in the name of Late CDS Bipin Rawat was presented by Deoprayag MLA Vinod Kandariand it was approved by the House. Apart from this, the duration of the session has been extended by one day. The House will also be having the sitting on December 11. The agenda of the proceedings of the House was decided in the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee. Condoling the untimely demise of General Bipin Rawat, Speaker of the Assembly Premchand Agrawal proposed to pay tribute on the first day, to which the members of the committee agreed. On Wednesday, in the meeting of party leaders and business advisory chaired by Speaker Agrawal in the auditorium located in the Vidhan Sabha building, it was decided that the house would be adjourned for the whole day along with condolence. Later briefing the media on the sitting of the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Banshidhar Bhagat said that tributes were paid to General Rawat in the House on the first day of the session. He observed that the death of General Bipin Rawat, his wife and officers and soldiers of the Indian Army in the helicopter crash was very tragic and painful. With the death of General Rawat, the country had lost a brave son. He was the pride of the nation of India and Uttarakhand.
