Sunday, 29 August 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Clearing all apprehensions, the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami passed the test posed by the Monsoon session of Uttarakhand assembly with flying colours. The session which ended on Saturday was the first session of Dhami after becoming the chief minister. As leader of the house, the young CM exhibited remarkable composure and skills and acted like a seasoned politician.
Dhami’s management skills came to the fore on the second day of the assembly when demanding start of Char Dham Yatra and issue of poor network connectivity the Kedarnath MLA Manoj Rawat and Dharchula MLA, Harish Dhami sat on a Dharna in the gallery of the assembly. To the surprise of everyone the CM Dhami walked down to the two agitated MLAs and took them to his office and listened to their issues with the chief secretary. With this he not only ensured that the opposition MLA end their Dharna but both the MLA praised him for his simplicity and promptness. Dhami repeated the act two days later when he went to the Bhagwanpur MLA Mamta Rakesh who along with Piran Kalier MLA, Phurkan Ahmed was sitting on Dharna inside the assembly building.
The young CM chose the floor of the assembly to make populist announcements such removal of freeze and a hike of 11 per cent in the dearness allowance (DA) of the employees, tablets for more than one lakh students of degree colleges and one time grant of Rs 10000 to policemen, revenue department employees and village development officers for appreciable service during the Covid pandemic. Showing a political acumen the CM made these announcements on different days of the session.
Like Dhami, the Monsoon session was a test for the leader of the opposition (LoP), Pritam Singh and parliamentary affairs minister Banshidhar Bhagat too as it was also the first session for them in their new capacities. Pritam Singh impressed everyone with his timely intervention and the manner with which he marshalled his MLAs in the assembly.
Under his leadership, the deputy leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Karan Mahra, Manglaur MLA Qazi Nizamuddin and Kedarnath MLA Manoj Rawat made the government uncomfortable on many occasions. For the first time during the term of current assembly private member bills were brought by Kedarnath MLA Manoj Rawat and Harish Dhami.
Even as the CM Dhami and LoP Pritam Singh performed impressively during the session, it was a mixed bag for Bhagat. Though he was able to manage things the new parliamentary affairs minister Bhagat failed to match the calibre of his predecessors Late Prakash Pant and of Madan Kaushik.
