Budget session of Chhattisgarh Assembly from Mar 7; BJP to target Cong govt on law & order issues

The budget session of the Chhattisgarh Assembly will begin from Monday and the state’s budget for 2022-23 will be tabled in the House on March 9, an official said on Sunday. The opposition BJP has decided to corner the ruling Congress over several issues, including the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the state.

On Monday, the session will commence with Governor Anusuiya Uikey’s address, followed by tabling of the motion of thanks on her address, the Assembly official said.

The debate on the motion of thanks to the governor’s address is proposed for March 8, he said.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who holds charge of the state finance department, will present the state budget on March 9, he said.

Till Saturday, 1,682 questions were received from the legislators, including 854 starred questions and 828 un-starred ones. Besides, 114 notices were received for the calling attention motion and 10 for the adjournment motion, the official said. There will be 13 sittings during the session, which will conclude on March 25.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Dharamlal Kaushik said the BJP was fully prepared to corner the state government during the session on several issues, particularly the ”deteriorating” law and order situation.

Expressing unhappiness over the “curtailed” duration of the budget session, Kaushik claimed that for the first time such a short budget session is being held in the history of Chhattisgarh, which is a violation of the parliamentary tradition.

“The session has been called only for 13 days. It should have been lengthier as there are a lot of issues that need to be raised in the House. The ruling Congress is trying to escape from the discussion,” he claimed.

“We will try to raise all issues of public importance in such a short period. We will target the government over the rising crimes, including incidents of rape and loot. We will also raise the issue of the increasing illegal sale of narcotics and liquor in the state,” the BJP leader said.

A delegation of BJP MLAs had met Assembly Speaker Charan Das Mahant on Saturday and requested him that the session should not be concluded ahead of its schedule, a leader from the saffron party said.