The three-day winter session of the Assembly may be extended considering the fact that the business advisory committee is slated to meet again on Wednesday. During the business advisory committee meeting presided over by the Vidhan Sabha speaker Prem Chand Aggarwal on Tuesday, the members discussed the business of the House for Wednesday. After the meeting, the speaker informed that on Wednesday 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, Uttarakhand Martyr Dependent Ex Gratia Grant Bill 2020 will be passed in the House. The Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Medical University (Amendment) Bill 2020 will be tabled in the House for reconsideration. He further informed that the business advisory committee will meet again on Wednesday. Deputy speaker Raghunath Singh Chauhan, parliamentary affairs minister Madan Kaushik, leader of opposition Indira Hridayesh, MLAs Pritam Singh, Khajan Das and officials concerned were present in the meeting.
Earlier, instead of rule 310, discussions were held under rule 58 on the issues of unemployment and farmers issues. Parliamentary affairs minister Madan Kaushik informed that between 2014 and 2017, candidates were selected for 801 posts by the subordinate services selection board while between 2017 and 2020 candidates were selected to about 6,000 posts. The process for selection to 7,000 more posts is currently underway in the commission. In addition to this, selection to 1,147 posts is underway in the public service commission. Apart from this, more than seven lakh people have been provided employment through various means, said the minister. On the subject of farmers’ issue, the House was informed that for the first time in 2019-20 100 per cent dues of farmers were paid.
Meanwhile, the government appeared to experience some difficulty while facing questions by BJP MLAs. The MLAs said that online digitalisation of ration cards was not being done completely. MLA Deshraj Karnwal asked what the government was doing to redress the complaints being received regarding the public distribution system. Replying to the query, Kaushik said that all ration cards under different schemes were being digitalised and being linked to the Aadhaar card. He also informed the various other measures being taken by the government in this regard. At least three BJP MLAs pointed out that network issues in mountainous regions was preventing cent per cent digitalisation of ration cards. Congress MLAs also raised the issue of problems being faced in digitalisation of ration cards and demanded that the same be resolved. Kaushik said that the state government is handling this issue seriously.
Wednesday, 23 December 2020 | PNS | Dehradun
