The house passes four bills; the session extended for one more day.
Not satisfied by the government’s reply on allegations of money laundering on a company purportedly owned by the industrial advisor of the Chief Minister, the opposition Congress party staged a walkout from the assembly on Wednesday. The opposition had claimed that an investment company (Social Mutual Benefits company) having links with the industrial advisor of CM, K S Panwar was involved in money laundering and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued a notice to the government on the company. In his reply Kaushik said that the RBI was requested to comment on the subject and it clarified that it has not issued any notice regarding the aforesaid company in the year 2020 as claimed by the opposition.
He added that a special task force (STF) set up by the state government had investigated 234 chit fund companies and organisations working in the state and it found no lacunae in the functioning of 98 companies and the Social Mutual Benefits company was one among these 98 companies. Not satisfied by the reply, the Congress members led by the Leader of Opposition (LoP) Indira Hridayesh and PCC president Pritam Singh staged a walkout from the assembly.
In the other business of the day the house passed the Uttarakhand Public Service (Reservation for Economically Weaker Sections) (Amendment) Bill 2020, Uttarakhand (Uttar Pradesh Land Revenue Act 1901) (Amendment) Bill 2020, Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission (Amendment) Bill 2020 and Uttarakhand Martyr Dependent Ex Gratia Grant Bill 2020.
As soon as the proceedings of the day started, the Congress members wanted the house to discuss the issue of what it termed widespread corruption in the state under rule 310. The Congress said that irregularities worth crores of rupees in Construction workers welfare board exposes the government and the Uttarakhand High Court (HC) had directed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should investigate the charges of corruption against the CM Trivendra Singh Rawat. In its notice, the Congress also said that the investigation into the NH-74 land acquisition and compensation case is still pending. On the notice of the Congress, the speaker ruled that the cases highlighted in the notice are in Court so the house cannot discuss them.
The house would discuss private member bills on Thursday. On pressure of the opposition, the winter session of Uttarakhand assembly originally scheduled for three days has been extended by one more day.
Cong members protest with Maltas & Paddies
In a protest of its kind, the Congress members brought Maltas and paddies on their shoulders and marched towards the assembly on Wednesday morning. The Congress members demanded that farmers are not getting anything for their Malta and orange crops and the government is misleading the farmers on the minimum support price of rice. Congress leader Karan Mahra said that the farmers of mountainous areas are in a very pathetic state and the Malta crop is rotting in the fields in absence of buyers.
Thursday, 24 December 2020 | PNS | Dehradun
