By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 15 Nov: Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha’s winter session has been called from 29 November onwards. As had been made clear earlier by the government, the session will be held in Dehradun. It may be recalled that, earlier, the government had considered holding the Winter Session in Gairsain but many MLAs including those from Congress had written to the CM, Pushkar Singh Dhami, as well as Speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan urging them to hold the winter session of the state assembly in Dehradun in view of the severe cold conditions that would prevail in Gairsain.
Despite the fact that many including some Congress MLAs had appealed to the Speaker and the CM to hold the winter session in Dehradun, the issue did become political once again. The government was still blamed by top Congress leaders including Harish Rawat for ignoring Gairsain. Some other opposition parties like AAP and UKD, too, raised the issue and blamed the BJP Government of deliberately ignoring Gairsain which had been declared as summer capital by the previous BJP Government led by Trivendra Singh Rawat.
In the summer season, “due to heavy tourist inflow”, the government had refrained from holding the summer session of the Vidhan Sabha in Gairsain. It may be pertinent to remind here that Gairsain and Bhararisain do not have adequate infrastructure to house all the employees and security personnel required to hold a session. In winter seasons, not even the tents can be put up and hence there are practical problems to be faced if the session is held in Gairsain.
It is believed that this session has been called till 7 December.
Sources said that the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha session might be held from 29 November till 7 December. The orders to this effect have been issued under the signature of officiating Secretary of Vidhan Sabha Hem Chandra Pandey, after approval from the Government in this regard. It is another matter that, in Uttarakhand, it has become a trend to hold four to five day sessions only. Very seldom have sessions longer than a week been held in the past seven or eight years. So, whether this session will really last till 7 December or more, remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, sources close to Speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan state that she has taken a stand that the recently terminated Vidhan Sabha employees would not be taken back in service despite the High Court’s directions in this regard.
