Thursday, 26 August 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The Uttarakhand assembly passed the supplementary budget of Rs 5,720 crore on the third day of monsoon session on Wednesday. The assembly also passed supplementary budget demands of different government departments on the day. The proceedings of the day started with the members of the Congress party demanding discussion under rule 310 on unemployment. The speaker however allowed discussion on unemployment under rule 58.
The house also passed the IMS Unison University (amendment) bill, the DIT university (amendment) bill and Uttarakhand Goods and Service Tax (GST) (amendment) bill 2020-21 on the day.
The Congress party also brought two private member bills in the assembly on Wednesday. The Kedarnath MLA, Manoj Rawat brought a private member bill on land laws while Dharchula MLA Harish Dhami brought a private bill on Devasthanam management board. However both these bills were rejected by a voice vote.
In response to a question during the question hour, the labour minister Harak Singh said that 25,327 migrants had registered in the portal of Uttarakhand government during the pandemic period. While replying to another question, Rawat said that the power department received 64,913 complaints in the year 2019-20 regarding faulty meter reading and out of them 58,584 were disposed of. He assured that the process of recovery would not be initiated against the consumers till their complaints on faulty bills are disposed of. On the concern of the members the minister said that a penalty would be imposed on the agency concerned if the complaint of faulty billing is found correct. He added that the licence of the agency would be blacklisted if three complaints against it are found correct.
In response to a question regarding the menace of monkeys in the mountainous areas, the environment and forest minister Harak Singh Rawat said that the department has caught 48,000 monkeys in the last four years and out of them 38,000 were sterilised. The Jhabreda MLA, Deshraj Karnwal raised the plight of the sanitation workers and said that since the government has dissolved their posts they are being exploited by the contractors. The urban development minister said that more than ten thousand sanitation workers are working in government departments. On the suggestion of the Dharmanpur MLA, Vinod Chamoli that a separate cadre for the sanitation workers should be created in the state, the minister said that matter would be examined by the government.
