Assembly meets for the first time after elections today
ALL SET Kataria administered oath as protem speaker; Congress nominates CP Joshi as Speaker
JAIPUR: Governor Kalyan Singh administered the oath of office to protem speaker Gulab Chand Kataria on Monday.
Kataria, who has already been elected as the Leader of the Opposition in the 15th state assembly, will work as the protem speaker till the assembly elects the Speaker. The first session of the assembly commences on Tuesday (January 15).
The oath ceremony for the protem speaker was held at the Governor House. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot, deputy CM Sachin Pilot and parliamentary affair minister Shanti Dhariwal present on the occasion.
Congress has decided t o appoint senior MLA CP Joshi as the assembly speaker, Mahesh Joshi as chief whip and Mahendra Choudhary as deputy chief whip. “The post of deputy speaker has been kept vacant,” said Avinash Pande, AICC general secretary and incharge Rajasthan.
The newly-elected MLAS will take oath in the assembly on Wednesday, while the governor will address the house on Thursday. The assembly may run for nine days. The decision regarding the same will be taken in the Business Advisory Committee meeting.
Sources in the government claimed that bills related to direct election of mayor and chairperson of local bodies will be brought i n t he s essi on. Another bill to nullify the law that provided for the minimum education qualification to contest elections in the Panchayati Raj Institutions, which was brought by the previous BJP government in 2015, will also be introduced, they added.
The opposition is “all-pre- pared” to corner government over loan waiver and illegal mining of bajri (river sand). According to the assembly website, six MLAS have listed 101 questions related to issues such as loan waiver, swine flu, urea shortage, illegal mining of bajri, PHED, reopening of schools closed by previous government and assistance to farmers, who committed suicide.
Maximum questions have been listed by Navalgarh MLA Rajkumar Sharma (27), followed by Ameen Khan (22), Nirmal Kumawat (19), Kiran Maheshwari (10), Hanuman Beniwal (16) and Hemram Choudhary (7).
In his question, Kumawat has asked - Has the government announced loan waiver for farmers? If yes, how many and much? Who all farmers are eligible for the waiver? Do the government plan to waive off complete loan on farmers in Rajasthan? If yes, till when and if not, why?