Session likely to be curtailed by a day

CHANDIGARH: The three-day winter session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha that commenced on Thursday is likely to be curtailed by a day.

The session planned from December 13 to 15 may be wrapped up in two days as per the discussions held in the meeting of the business advisory committee of the assembly that met on the opening day. “The business is not adequate to run the session for three days,” said a BAC member on condition of anonymity.

Though the formal announcement on the duration of session will be made in the House on Friday, the opposition parties, which were demanding extension of the session, assailed the ruling party. “The Congress’ plan to curtail the session is a cruel joke on people and mockery of democracy,” SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said in a statement.

Sukhbir said the Congress MLAs, who formed the majority in BAC, had recommended that the winter session be curtailed. “This is unprecedented and reflects the attitude of the state government,” he added.

Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Aman Arora, Budh Ram, Baljinder Kaur, Kultar Singh Sandhwan, Amarjit Sandoa and Kulwant Singh also opposed the move to reduce the session duration from three to one-and-a-half days. “The government has failed on all fronts and is running away from public issues,” they said in a press conference. HTC